Contributor: ATTWN Staff
For several years, abortion scenes have been creeping into television series and movies. One that perhaps catapulted the issue more into the national entertainment scene than others was in 2015 on Scandal when Olivia had an abortion. It wasn’t messy or heartwrenching, and Planned Parenthood loved it. They said it just depicted “a moment in the character’s life.” Planned Parenthood has also had a direct hand in producing movies about abortion, such as Obvious Child in 2014 and Never Rarely Sometimes Always in 2020, which both bombed at the box office. But they won’t stop trying. In fact, Planned Parenthood has a national director of arts and entertainment, Caren Spruch, whose job it is to advise Hollywood directors and actors on how to “accurately” portray abortion.
Variety interviewed Spruch, where they glamorized her job and all the wonderful scenes and shows she has had a hand in:
In [Lena] Dunham’s new Netflix dramedy “Too Much,” Jess (Megan Stalter) has an abortion that’s somewhat traumatic – not because of the procedure, but because of the breakup it signifies. “So we talked about how the abortion provider was portrayed, because we need nuanced portrayals of what it means to provide these services,” Spruch says. The scene is less than two minutes long, but it’s one of the series’ most affecting. When Jess wakes up from the procedure, loopy and sobbing, it’s not her partner who’s there to console her. It’s Betsy, a kind woman in blue scrubs who knows nothing about the devastating loneliness that made this abortion necessary for Jess, but holds her and understands her all the same.
Abortion is Not Nuanced
When Unplanned, the story of Abby Johnson, her time at Planned Parenthood, and the one day that changed the course of her life in the abortion procedure room, was released in March 2019, it received an R rating due to the graphic nature of showing what abortion is really like. There are two scenes from the film in particular that led to the rating: one was Abby’s own medication abortion, a bloody affair in her bathroom that was actually toned down from what actually happened, and the scene where a young girl almost loses her life because the staff at Planned Parenthood was not allowed to call an ambulance.
“There’s a lot of blood and horror in the movie because abortion is bloody and horrible. A life is ended, sometimes more than one life is ended,” said Johnson, the founder of And Then There Were None and ProLove Ministries. “If films are going to be honest about abortion, then they need to show what abortion is really like. Producers should be talking to the clinic workers whose job it is to put the pieces of the baby together in the Products of Conception lab, to clean up the procedure rooms, and to comfort the women in recovery who are beside themselves with grief.”
Mass Media Consulting from Former Abortion Workers
And Then There None, which has helped more than 750 abortion workers leave their jobs and find hope and healing, has former abortion clinic workers available for consultations on mass media entertainment. These workers have seen it all, and many of their stories are eerily similar, even though they never met before joining the ATTWN tribe and live hundreds of miles from each other. Some of the former abortion workers were clinic directors like Abby Johnson and Mayra Rodriguez. Others worked in call centers, others were nurses, and others worked in the procedure rooms.
“If producers, directors, and writers want to be truthful in their presentation of abortion, then speaking to those who have been directly involved is the direction they should pursue,” said Johnson. “No one knows abortion better than us.”
To speak to former abortion workers for a mass media project, please reach out to abby@attwn.org.
And if you are working at an abortion clinic and want to get out, we can help. Please don’t hesitate to contact us. No one grows up wanting to work in an abortion clinic. The key to freedom is just a call or text away. Text or call (888) 570-5501.