Last
month saw the release of two important artistic projects that visualize
reproductive choice: the American movie Obvious Child, and the Canadian
book One Kind Word.
Half
of pregnancies are unplanned, and 40% of these end in abortion. In the US
more than a million women have abortions each year, but this is not reflected in mainstream film. As writer/director Jillian Robespierre explained,
“We did write this script in response to a slew of movies that came out about
unplanned pregnancy that always resulted in childbirth. It was frustrating, and
instead of waiting for that movie to be made we decided to make it ourselves. I
didn’t want to show the same film where the woman is struggling with the
decision—I’ve seen that film before—and it’s not that this didn’t happen with
this character, but we didn’t want to show the same story.”
Obvious Child
In
2009 she teamed up with comedian Jenny Slate to make a short film that
went viral online. They then got funding to make a feature-length film that premiered
at Sundance and was released in theaters last month. Obvious Child (the
title of a Paul Simon song used in the film) is a romantic comedy about a
stand-up comic who breaks up with her partner, loses her job, then has an
unplanned pregnancy—and choses abortion. It has been falsely characterized as
an “abortion comedy,” but as Slate said in an interview on CBC, “It's about this woman's
journey from being passive to active, and learning how to stand by her
decisions and still be herself, which means still be funny. Now that she's
making a very adult decision, which is to have this safe procedure, can she
still be irreverent and playful? Is her nature still hers when it's paired with
this choice?”
The film follows the conventional story arc of a romantic comedy, is very irreverent and playful when it comes to the main character, but is
very normalizing when portraying abortion. The filmmakers consulted Planned
Parenthood to provide an accurate portrayal of a clinic experience—from
counseling, to the procedure and recovery room. It shows the ongoing fear of stigma
and importance of support. Refreshingly, the film doesn’t give a second of
screen time to the anti-choice, though it does reference financial barriers and
government restrictions.
It
speaks volumes of mainstream film that this is one of the few to pass the Bechdel
test—two female characters with names, who talk to each, about
something other than a man—and rarer still that it be a positive portrayal of
one of the million American women each year who chooses abortion. As Slate
explained, “In the United States, women’s rights are very much under attack,
and it’s enraging to some people to see a woman just make that decision. It’s
good to me that the film is ground-breaking in a way, and in another way I look
forward to a day when this is just part of a story…I get sent a lot of scripts
that I read, and a lot of them have astounding and frankly irritating things
that the women are doing—like women being traditionally catty to each other,
often written by men. That to me is more shocking than a woman choosing what to
do with her body.”
This
is just one story—of a 30-year old urban white woman choosing abortion—but it’s
an invitation to share others. As Robespierre said in an interview on Democracy
Now on the anniversary of Roe v Wade, “Women’s rights are under
attack, and there are many states that have put new restrictions on women being
able to have safe, positive procedures. I think it’s a really good time for
people to tell their stories.”
One Kind Word
While
Robespierre and Slate were producing their short and feature-length film films
on abortion, Martha Solomon and Kathryn Palmateer—founders of arts4choice—were gathering stories and
portraits of women across Canada who have had abortions. Seven years of work
culminated in the launch last month of One
Kind Word: Women Share Their Abortion Stories. The title is from the
personal story of Lori, a clinic counselor who reflected on her own abortion in
1972: “the support I would have appreciated: one kind word from anyone.”
In Canada there is no abortion
law, but there are still multiple barriers to reproductive justice. As Solomon
and Palmateer write in the introduction: “The iniquities of abortion access
mirror the greater inequities in our society. Colonialism and racism can
severely affect women’s abortion access and experiences. Low-income women face
greater barriers than do affluent women, and access is even more tenuous for
homeless, refugee and undocumented women. In many parts of the country, there
are simply no providers available; in others, such as Prince Edward Island,
provincial health authorities have refused to honour women’s basic reproductive
health care needs and do not fund abortion services. Women from PEI who require
an abortion must travel to another province and fund the costs of their
abortion and travel expenses themselves. In New Brunswick, a woman must have
the approval of two doctors before obtaining a provincially funded abortion.
Sadly, the Fredericton Morgentaler clinic, the only other option for women
seeking abortions in the maritimes, is scheduled to close in July 2014 after years
of fighting the New Brunswick government, further limiting the already paltry
options for east coast women. In no other area of health care would such an
egregious disrespect for people’s basic health care needs be tolerated. Indeed,
the problems with access in Canada point to a deep-seated misogyny within our
country and our health care system.”
This
extends into medical schools, which have insufficient discussion of abortion
except for students who actively pursue abortion training. Marginalizing one of the
most common medical procedures, which one third of women will chose at some
point in their lives, contributes to the lack of abortion providers—a problem
that Medical Students For Choice seeks to
correct, as Jillian Bardsley explains in the book’s forward.
Women
sharing their abortion stories was part of the last
great wave of reproductive justice struggles, and part of the new movement.
As Judy Rebick writes in the book’s forward, “As part of the movement then, we
organized testimonials from women who had desperately sought abortion when it
was illegal, or later when it was legalized under such restrictive
circumstances that only a small percentage of women who needed abortions got
them in safe and supportive conditions. But since the legalization of abortion,
there has been too much silence. The anti-choice organizations, who now have a
supportive federal government, have continued their vile propaganda, the
purpose of which is, at least in part, to make women with an unwanted pregnancy
feel guilt if they chose abortion. That’s why I think a book where women go
public about their abortions is so important today.”
As
Solomon and Palmateer summarize, “In this book you will meet thirty-two
Canadian women who have had abortions. They are courageous and brave; they are
inspiring; they are our mothers, sisters, friends, lovers, neighbors, teachers,
politicians, doctors, and grandmothers… Our participants come from a range of
class backgrounds, ethnicities, abilities, and language groups. You will read
stories from Latina women, French Canadians, and First Nations women, as well
as women from Asian, Indo-Caribbean, and African Canadian communities. Our
participants are young and old (and in-between), financially stable and just
making ends meet, mothers and childless, in relationships and single,
heterosexual and lesbian.”
These
stories cover the history of abortion in Canada—from Linda who had a
“terrifying experience” in 1968 when abortion was illegal, to Joyce whose
experience with a Therapeutic Abortion Committee in 1988 shaped her life as a
pro-choice activist, to Mika who had a clinic abortion four months before she
participated in the book. The stories cover a variety of experiences in
unplanned pregnancies, barriers to abortion, emotional reactions to the
procedure, and level of support from family or friends. Regardless of their
personal reactions to abortion—from grieving to ambivalence to empowerment—the
women have a shared experience of facing barriers to choice and feeling the
need to speak out. As Kaleigh says, about both her disability and her
experience with abortion: “In having open conversations we actively annihilate
shame.”
The
format of written stories (30 in English, one in Spanish and one in French)
combined with photos makes an instant human connection to the women and the
importance of reproductive choice. As Sheila explains: “Photos complementing
our written stories, particularly a collection of women’s photos and stories
like arts4choice is producing (rather than an individual story like mine), is
even more dramatic in its effect because the visual dimension will help people
see and process more comprehensively that we are everywhere, and we are various
ages from different racial, class, and cultural backgrounds. Through the
photos, they will see people who look like their friends, coworkers, sisters,
etcetera. This association of familiarity will help them feel some empathy, or
possibly even a little compassion.”
As
Solomon and Palmateer conclude: “It is time for women themselves to articulate
what kind of abortion care this country requires. We need to ask ourselves:
what is it about our experiences that we need to keep, and what do we need to
change? We can only do that when we are open and vocal about our experiences,
both positive and negative. In this way, we can expand our vision of what
comprehensive, feminist, on-demand abortion care can and should look like in
this country, and we can also work towards building a stronger, more inclusive,
and more authentic conversation about reproductive justice in Canada.”
Obvious Child is in theatres now. One
Kind Word was just launched in Toronto and will be launched in Halifax next week, with
launch dates in Ottawa and Vancouver to be determined. You can get a copy from Another Story Bookshop in Toronto, or online
from Three O’Clock
Press or Amazon.
