ABC’s ‘Scandal’ abortion, Planned Parenthood episode divides Americans
Planned Parenthood praised ABC’s Scandal‘s recent abortion episode which has proved be divisive topic between abortion supporters and pro-life critics.
- A “Brave & Unprecedented,” “truly awesome” move that “Just Changed TV Forever” – Nicole Pomarico, Bustle
- Viewers “stunned” – Emily Yahr, Washington Post
- “Shock… Fans cheer” – James Hibberd, Entertainment Weekly
- “Powerful message… groundbreaking… such a big deal” –Jessica Samakow, Huffington Post
- “Shonda Goes There… sets off an explosion of discourse” –Clover Hope, Jezebel
- “Daring” and “magnificent” – Sonia Saraiya, Salon
- “Perfect” television – Christina Cauterucci, Slate
Thanks to @shondarhimes for standing with Planned Parenthood & for being groundbreaking creator! #Scandal #StandWithPP
— Planned Parenthood (@PPact) November 20, 2015
Newsbusters began their article: “ABC’s Scandal just crossed a sickening line in the episode ‘Baby It’s Cold Outside.'” saying that “The entire hour was an advertisement for Planned Parenthood…”
The main character, Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) has an abortion set to the Christmas hymn “Silent Night,” a song that celebrates the birth of Christ, killing her and the president’s baby.
Saraiya’s Salon post on the subject at least mentioned the vacuum:
Say what you will about last night’s winter finale of “Scandal,” “Baby, It’s Cold Outside”—I found it a little sloppy—but on the issues, it’s magnificent. And pointed: That title is macabre, given that we watch Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) go to a deserted clinic on Christmas Eve to undergo a first trimester abortion. A machine vacuum aspiration uses suction to withdraw fetal tissue. Baby, it’s cold outside, indeed.
In addition to “Silent Night,” there was a voiceover by Olivia’s father, Rowan Pope with this nihilistic perspective:
Family is a burden … a pressure point, soft tissue, an illness, an antidote to greatness. You think you’re better off with people who rely on you, depend on you, but you’re wrong, because you will inevitably end up needing them, which makes you weak, pliable. Family doesn’t complete you. It destroys you.
Planned Parenthood, other pro-choice groups, and the former Texas State Senator Wendy Davis praised the episode. Fans on Twitter alternately celebrated and condemned the abortion scene, with some upset that Scandal’s creator, Shonda Rhimes, seemingly injected her beliefs into the story.
The Federalist points out that Shonda Rhimes has often used her ABC dramas to promote abortion.
On Grey’s Anatomy, Cristina Yang decided to abort her husband’s child over his objections. The reasoning was sloppy at best—mostly for convenience and to hurt her husband by declaring he did not deserve a say in the fate of his own child. Rhimes’s spin-off, “Private Practice,” spent numerous storylines allowing OB/GYN Addison Montgomery to pontificate about abortion and even agree to abort a 19-week-old baby despite the objections of the ostensibly “pro-life” partial owner of the practice.
Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards offered her own statement, thanking producer Shonda Rhimes for doing her organization a service.
“Tonight, the millions of people who tune into Scandal every Thursday night learned that our rights to reproductive health care is under attack…Never one to shy away from critical issues, Shonda Rhimes used her platform to tell the world that if Planned Parenthood lost funding for contraception conseling, STI testing, cancer screenings and safe, legal abortion — millions of people would suffer.”
Scandal did some serious shilling for Planned Parenthood. Mellie Grant is the president’s ex-wife, and now a senator. And though she laments that she is a Republican, Grant filibusters a bill that could have potentially cut funding to Planned Parenthood.
By making that money discretionary, you give the people in this room the power to say, ‘You know what? We’re a little over budget this year. How about we don’t give that little ladies’ organization the full amount they’re asking for?’ So you don’t. And then, next year, you give them even less, and even less the year after that, and you keep chipping away at their budget until, before you know it, Planned Parenthood no longer exists.
[…] this while shows like Will & Grace frequently compare Republicans to Nazis and shows like Scandal feature the main character undergoing an abortion to the tune of “Silent Night.”… He has a whole slew —actually, the entire culture — of entertainment media that endorses his […]
Very Sad, just because U.S. law made it legal; doesn’t mean it is not murder. It is murder in God’s eyes. Though shalt not Kill! Unless you don’t believe in God, than there is no hope for you anyway.
I believe in a women’s right to chose…
Sex or no sex…that’s your choice…