I realize I am late to the party on this one, my wife and I
don’t really watch live TV and it took a couple weeks for this episode of NBC’s
“Parenthood” to come off of our DVR. But
for a show that for 4 seasons now has dealt realistically, even painfully
realistically at times, with the issues families and parents cope with chose to
deal incredibly unrealistically with the very serious subject of abortion. It was worth reserving judgment because now
in having seen the follow-up episode, it is even more incredible how the show
chose to treat the topic.
What seems most plausible is that Planned Parenthood wrote
Comcast (NBC’s parent) in exchange for product placement. Something you typically see done with cars or
soft drinks, not murder. The two teenage
characters on the show had been having sexual relations for several
months. When discovered by his single
mother’s fiancé (a 30-ish teacher at his school), the teenage boy was only
offered the bad advice of modern society – use a condom (note that among those
couples who say they use condoms as their primary means of birth control they
are only 67% successful in avoiding pregnancy – it seems condoms are only 99%
effective if worn every single time you have sex).
So given that, it was incredibly plausible that his teenage
girlfriend would get pregnant. I don’t
know that we have ever been told the age of the girl, but she is a high school
senior and most likely under 18. It is
irrelevant in a legal sense because California does not have parental notification
which means a girl of any age can walk (or be taken by someone) into a clinic
and get an abortion. So, on TV, we were
treated to a scared teenage girl visiting a Planned Parenthood clinic. This is where any realistic portrayal of the
situation ended.
At the clean, sanitary Planned Parenthood clinic, the couple
was treated to a straight forward, factual presentation of their “options”. This was very interesting given that pregnant
teens have better odds of winning the lottery than walking out of a Planned
Parenthood clinic without getting an abortion.
Of course it omitted any notion of what those familiar with the ministry
Rachel’s Vineyard know, and that is an abortion can have a traumatic impact on
all involved.
The interesting thing is that while Planned Parenthood execs
clearly must have thought the portrayal helped their cause, it was only at a
very surface level. Beneath the surface
the scene was rather dark, a realistic look at the liberal vision for
America. Here you had two teenagers,
burned by the bad sex education of the left, sitting there without the only
people in the world who might possibly have their long-term best interests at
heart (their parents), being talked to in a cold and clinical manner by a
complete stranger. The ludicrousness of
the notion that two teenagers would be equipped to make a life changing (and
ending) decision was on full display.
After that appointment at the clinic, Drew (the boyfriend),
makes a dramatic plea to keep the baby, find some way to raise it, etc. Adoption, an option that saves the life of
the child, was never discussed. The
teenage girl coldly dismisses the idea of keeping the baby with a look that
says, “we aren’t in this together, this is happening to me”. That is of course the classic feminist line,
but if we acknowledge that is true, then doesn’t it lead to the idea that women
have more to lose in engaging in intercourse?
And if that is true, then can women and men ever pursue casual sex to
the same degree? If the answer is no,
then feminism collapses of course as an illogical paradox – promising something
that is not possible.
But I digress. So our
teenage lovers (or rather the girl) have made the decision to get an abortion
without telling her parents. It is
interesting that Planned Parenthood would choose to see such a scenario
presented, it almost reeks of, dare I say, marketing? What better advertisement than, “hey kids
come get an abortion and your parents will never know”. Of course it goes without saying that no
respectable organization would ever want to be in the position of usurping
parental authority. There is something
very unseemly about an outfit that would make a business out of recruiting
underage girls, without their parents’ knowledge, for abortions.
But on the other hand, if you look at the statistics around
the average age of the father in the case of a teenage pregnancy, you find the
vast majority are over 18 (or age is not reported if legal action is feared)
and not even close. We aren’t talking
about a 19 year-old college kid who got his 17 year-old girlfriend
pregnant. Statistically speaking, it is
more likely to be a man in his 30s, 40s, even 50s.
Throughout the episode, only the boyfriend is racked with
indecision and guilt. The girl calmly
proceeds to the clinic, has the procedure, and goes home prepared to never tell
her parents what happened. It is
obvious she will break up with the boyfriend and attempt (unsuccessfully of
course) to bury the trauma. But there is
an interesting twist at the end of the episode.
The boyfriend, unable to deal with the situation, finally
goes tearfully to his mom in the closing montage. Music is playing so there is no dialogue, but
the implication is that he tells his mother what happened. Logical next step for any parent would be to
call the parents of the girl and let them know their daughter had an
abortion. How any parent could keep that
knowledge from another parent would be beyond comprehension.
Yet, as we get into the next episode (this week’s), there is
no further discussion of the incident.
The storylines have picked up and moved on, leaving that as a bizarre,
Planned Parenthood sponsored one-off. In
other words, apparently the girls’ parents were never notified their daughter
had an abortion and she will attempt to go on baring the scars of this trauma
herself.
It was really unbelievable and shallow treatment of the
subject. No discussion of how the kids
wound up in this situation (liberal sex ed), nor how unprepared they were to
try and make this decision (Planned Parenthood is treating scared kids like
adults apparently), and then finally, no real acknowledgment of the incredible
trauma this girl will now deal with for the rest of her life.
The only positive to be taken away from it is that
apparently Planned Parenthood feels their image has taken such a hit, that they
were willing to write a check large enough to get Comcast execs to set their consciences
aside. Maybe pro-life groups should
raise a similar amount so that a future episode can include the girl attending
a Rachel’s Vineyard retreat?
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