Anyone see Scrubs last night? December 8, 2006 Jill I don’t have a TV, but reader Neil tells me that abortion came up, and was presented pretty fairly. Anyone see it? Thoughts?
It was an interesting take. Most interesting, I think, because of how casual it was. The question of whether or not to abort was presented as a momentous one, but not a morally perilous one. It wasn’t a Very Special Episode, is I guess what I’m trying to say. It was dealt with lightly. Jesus had a cameo, by the way, and he was anti-choice. It wasn’t quite clear if it was Jesus-Jesus, though, or just a Jesus statue.
Damnit! I watched last week and was pissed that they didn’t mention it and I wanted to tune in this week for that express purpose but I forgot. So I am also looking for info about the episode.
Jesus had a cameo, by the way, and he was anti-choice. Actually, I shouldn’t say that. He was anti-abortion, but not explicitly anti-choice.
It wasn’t quite clear if it was Jesus-Jesus, though, or just a Jesus statue. He was JD’s fantasy Jesus. That’s what JD does. (Jesus was also very disapproving of their premarital sex.) I was really impressed with how they handled it and (normally wouldn’t blog plug, I aplogize in advance) wrote a short thing about it. But the short version is: the show treated it as an important decision, and one of the regular characters explains that she had an abortion when she was 19. It wasn’t a sob story (there was no rape or trauma) and she’s okay with what she decided. (On the other hand, the character who had the abortion is the one they’ve consistently presented as whore-ish.) In the end, they decide to have the baby. (Duh.) But at least it was discussed and presented as a viable, reasonable option.
It was an interesting take. Most interesting, I think, because of how casual it was. It was so casual because both characters are doctors. The way JD and… what’s-her-name (I only caught half the episode and can’t remember her name) discussed it, they could either have an abortion or get married. They sat down at the coffee table and were discussing it. JD: And finally, with marriage we get the tax deduction and benefits. Together: Tax benefits, mmmm! Altogether they came up with 19 pros and 20 cons for abortion vs. marriage to raise the kid (why didn’t adoption come up? We don’t know). They decided that it was still too close to a tie, and later in the episode decided to flip a coin. After a slow-motion toss, the quarter landed on the table and spun a whole lot until it stood on edge. That doesn’t happen every day, JD obviously observed. And then the episode ended. At least that’s the way I remember it ending. Maybe I got up too soon. Jesus had a cameo, by the way, and he was anti-choice. Actually, I shouldn’t say that. He was anti-abortion, but not explicitly anti-choice. I don’t think Jesus’s inner monologue projecting his idea of right-wing Jesus onto Nurse Lavern’s statue really gets to count as Jesus. Although I really loved Eliot or whats-her-name (damn it!) when she said, Lavern, this is none of your business, and no offense, it’s not Jesus’s either, because it’s just so true! Every time Lavern says “Oh, don’t apologize to me; apologize to Gee-zus!” or something like that, I wish J.D., Eliot, Turk, Dr. Cox, Carla, or the Janitor would just slap her. Oh, and Jill, it’s this comment that started J.D.’s projection of his idea of Jesus onto her little desk statue. Interesting enough, J.D.’s Jesus projection did manage to debunk the infallibility of scripture and Jesus, the absoluteness of divine commands, shen he was arguing with Jesus. But what if like she was really poor and couldn’t raise the baby and nobody would adopt her and she’d be unhealthy and all that? And statue-Jesus says, Oh well then that’s OK, yeah.
Adoption was mentioned in passing at the beginning of the episode. JD was uncomfortable with it (apparently because he was afraid of meeting and sleeping with his daughter in the future). I’d say, by the way, that the *show* treated it casually, but the characters did not. JD and Kim were both really confused and upset. Not about the medical side (like was said, they’re both doctors) but emotionally, they’re very conflicted. The conversation with Jesus actually goes like this (god bless Tivo): Laverne: Did someone just say ‘abortion’? Kim: Lavern, with all due respect, this is none of your business. And none of Jesus’s. Laverne (putting Jesus statue on the counter): I think he would beg to differ. – Jesus: She’s right, JD, every life is precious. JD: What if having this baby is a huge mistake for us? Jesus: (sigh) Okay. I’m gonna make this real simple. No abortions, okay? JD: But what if– Jesus: No abortions! JD: But let me finish! What if the parents are like, abusive drug addicts who’ll abuse their kid? Jesus: Well, in that case, it would be okay. JD: Really? Jesus: NO ABORTIONS! How are you not getting this?! Aerik, the episode continues after that; it ends with Turk’s baby being born and JD and Kim deciding to have the baby.
Ok, SO, I was drinking Trader Joe’s 3 dollar swill when I was watching, so I was probably feeling a little belligerent, but my elation at a TV show, visible on my TV, traveling over cable or through space or whatever, that like, other people could watch (theoretically) acknowledging that considering abortion did not lead you to be struck by lightning or otherwise smote (except maybe by that tiny imaginary Jesus) totally dissipated in the last segment, which was total crap. I mean, the whole show is crap, but the last scene was like, offensive. Turk and Carla came out with their baby and it was SNUGGLY and everyone (on the show, not on my couch) clapped and Garden State and Masturbating Beth from The 40-Year-Old Virgin were like “oh, wow, that’s right, we totally forgot how SNUGGLY it would be, the answer is clear, babies ahoy!” And then Jordan (The Aborter) got all like, wistful because you know, even whores like SNUGGLY. Grrr. P.S. I am still really annoyed about how on Gilmore Girls, Laine got pregnant with her loser husband, and the sonogram showed like ninety fetuses and she was all “oh my god what do I do” and everyone was like “well, you can have an epidural or not, or you could try a water birth.” P.P.S. However, 30 Rock was amazing. The Stabbing Robot? I would totally have his abortion. Haha JK, that would be wrong. P.P.P.S. It is funny how I have been reading Feministe since it was a bitty-little sapling blog, but the first time I am compelled to comment, it is because someone wants to know something about a crappy TV show.
I’m with you, RonnieTalkToRussia. If this makes any sense, I thought the abortion side of the question was treated reasonably, but the having-a-baby side wasn’t. Like, babies are SO AWESOME that they make it worth taking a huge chance on a relationship that you’ve just barely started and have no idea about yet. And Jordan was even sad right after she told them her abortion story, even though she was clear that it was the right decision to make. (For the record, JD called Jordan a whore during that conversation. Jokingly, but you know, when the word “whore” is being used by a man against a woman in the context of her sexual activity, it’s not exactly a subversive usage.) They also didn’t really show anything negative about Carla’s childbirth — it was all, ha ha she’s being a bitch because she’s in horrible pain isn’t it hilarious, oh look a CUTE BABEEEE! Mostly, I think it was a problem of perspective — the show is very much from a male point of view, so as liberal as it tends to be, it still more or less ignored the negative side from a woman’s point of view of having an unplanned child with a person you barely know. That is, the physical effects (which were mentioned, but only in order to make an echoing-vagina joke, ugh); the high probability that you’ll be the one doing most of the raising of the child, especially if the relationship doesn’t work out (and on this note, there was actually a side plot in which Dr. Cox started taking care of his own kid, although it had nothing directly to do with JD); the possible damage to your career (which wasn’t mentioned at all); etc.
I actually don’t think Jordan was sad after she told the story; I think she was more wistful and looking back. She’d also said that the guy who got her pregnant was the first guy she’d had sex with; he also wasn’t the guy she had been dating at the time. Though I agree, JD calling her a whore pissed me off, as well. I thought the childbirth was more unrealistic than anything else. There’s a problem, it’s an emergency, the umbilical cord is wrapped around the baby’s neck, the baby’s in emergency care…and then Turk comes out ten minutes later holding a child that has to be at least several months old. Um. Whatever. But I also forgive their sudden decision to have the kid because they were waiting to actually feel something one way or the other; seeing the baby made them feel like they could handle it, so they decided to. And also…it’s a sitcom. It got very sappy and emotional right there, but that’s basically just the genre. The perspective of the show, though, you’re dead right about (piehat). I actually really dislike JD overall and almost all of the problems I’ve had with the show (which I really, really like most of the time) have been side effects of JD’s very entitled POV.
Riiiiight, piehat? I mean, CUTE BABEEE is as good a reason to give birth as any, but it was just sort of, I was watching it unfold and for all the Thinking Hard, I just never really doubted, deep down in my soul (which is where I process Scrubs episodes), that they would have the baby, and that they would decide to have it by the end of that very episode. Which, gah, I mean, everyone does not have to abort every tv baby ever from now on to make me happy, it would be enough for now if confusion-when-pregnant could be treated as real and profound and persistant and not resolved by the cuteness of other people’s deus-ex-machina babies. I know that’s probably the wrong thing to ask of Scrubs in particular, but have there been any meaningful main-character TV abortions since, like, Maude? Or even any meaningful main character holy-shit-i-am-pregnant-what-do-I-do situations where she decides have the baby but it seems like a real process?
Or even any meaningful main character holy-shit-i-am-pregnant-what-do-I-do situations where she decides have the baby but it seems like a real process? Judging Amy. Amy and her mother discuss what to do about an unexpected pregnancy, and they both obviously consider abortion a viable, even an expected choice. The mother (Tyne Daly) asks Amy what she’s going to do, and lets her know that she will support her no matter what her choice. But it is television, so she decides to continue the pregnancy. But they still discussed it exactly the way my feminist friends would. Overall, Judging Amy is a great feminist show.
But it is television, so she decides to continue the pregnancy. But they still discussed it exactly the way my feminist friends would. Television wasn’t always this way. I’m feeling very old writing this, but way back when in “my day,” TV characters didn’t automatically choose to have a baby. I distinctly remember two comedies whose main characters chose abortions and it wasn’t even all that controversial. One show was “Maude,” the other was called “Buffalo Bill” (starring Dabney Colman and a rather young Genna Davis.) These are the shows I recall from memory, but there were probably others. I know this dates me considerably, but I want younger people to understand that the way TV handles abortion these days is very much a product of the anti-abortion movement’s pressure on Hollywood. It doesn’t have to be this way. In order to get TV producers to handle this issue in a reality-based way, we just need to make as much of a stink as our opponents do.
Shoot, RonnieTalkToRussia mentioned Maude already. Sorry. That was well before the anti-abortion groups targeted TV producers. I had thought “Scrubs” may have taken a shot a being more progressive. So sad it couldn’t even manage that. I wonder if all of Hollywood has some sort of “no abortion” policy now. Since I haven’t seen anyone make that choice recently, I’d have to guess the answer is yes.
I did not like this show even a little bit. You always knew they eventually were going to do the “right” thing and have the baby (and that this was the only “right” choice for them). It was just… no. It was stupid and sucky. No.
Hollywood is not so much against abortion, it’s just against being casual about anything that’s not pc. Abortion is not pc now, so Hollywood is always careful when mentioning it. As for other shows that deal with it I thought Grey’s anatomy did well with abortion. At first I thought they were just wimping out like most shows, by having Christina have a miscarrige. But I think it was actually so the father, a surgen, would find out (it was a very dangerous miscarrige). To their credit, they had her boyfriend ask her what she would have done if not for the accident. After much great debating, about the difficulties of being a mother and a doctor, with her pregnant boss, she tells him without apology that she would have had an abortion. He told her he is perfectly fine with her choice he just wanted to know.
Damnit! I did get up and get some fast food too soon! AAAAARRGG! Judging Amy. Amy and her mother discuss what to do about an unexpected pregnancy, and they both obviously consider abortion a viable, even an expected choice. The mother (Tyne Daly) asks Amy what she’s going to do, and lets her know that she will support her no matter what her choice. But it is television, so she decides to continue the pregnancy. But they still discussed it exactly the way my feminist friends would. Overall, Judging Amy is a great feminist show. Agreed, one hundred percent. I love Amy Brennerman; That is to say, I’m in love with her. And Tyne Daly. Or not. Whatever. I’ve seen every episode of Judging Amy, her movie ATF, the one with Cameron Diaz, and the one with the guy who plays Grissom on CSI. All of them thanks very much to TNT and USA networks. And I really took notice with the other actors showed up on other shows, like the actor who played Donna was on another doctor show with the “Sister, Sister” twins, and ‘Vincent’ is in a bunch of good movies, and ‘Kyle’ was in an episode of CSI and an episode of ST:DS9. I’m a tv geek big time.
Though I agree, JD calling her a whore pissed me off, as well.>> I think it was more that she slept with her boyfriend’s friend than had an abortion that he called her that, and he’s slept with her, too! I understand how many might feel the ending is a ‘copout,’ but that’s what happens sometimes when people are around babies. My wife and I have been married for nine years, and we have rarely have brought up having children. But once we went to her best friend’s son’s 1-year-old’s party, and there were about five other pregnant women there, so she thought about it…but later, we went back to our ‘normal lives.’ Since Scrubs is kind of a serial, I don’t think the decision is in cement, but they were overwhelmed by the moment of Turk and Carla having their baby. I bet there will still be plenty of doubts, especially since I don’t think the woman who plays the girlfriend won’t be on the show for more than a handful of episodes. And thanks for the credit, Jill. 🙂
There was this one episode of House, I think in the first season, where a 12 yo swimmer has a bunch of mysterious symptoms that turn out to be related to some condition whereby they figure out she’s pregnant. I think the father was either the coach or one of the older boys on her team. She’s really worried about what her parents will think, because House tells her that basically she needs to have the abortion to survive, since her body can’t handle the pregnancy. He tells her that she should tell her parents but respects her right not to, and even lies to the parents to protect her privacy over the issue. She has the abortion, and then there’s a scene at the end where she’s in her room and you’re just watching through the glass and she tells her parents and is crying, and they go over and hug her. I really, really liked that episode because not only was it very plain about how the abortion would save her life and was therefore such a no-brainer, but the respect for her privacy was great too.
One unusual, and unusually good, piece was simply the treatment of the word abortion. Most times, even on TV shows that treat the subject intelligently, the word is avoided. People talk about “keeping the baby,” but not “having an abortion.” Not only did JD & Kim (I think that’s her name) say the words, but the word abortion became the focus of a joke, with Jordan’s 3-year-old chanting “My mommy’s had an abortion” over and over. Very refreshing for Hollywood to justt treat the word as a word, and not a dire political statement.
I actually did watch this episode, which is funny because I rarely watch Scrubs, even though, generally, it’s a funny show. I liked how abortion was treated as something that could be practical and absolutely ok (Jordan’s story) but there was never really any talk about how the girlfriend felt about abortion at all – just how Laverne, Jesus, and JD felt about it (unless I missed that part) while we did see how she felt about childbirth (it messes up your womanly bits). In the end, as with most TV shows, she decided to continue the pregnancy. They decided. I agree with the previous poster regarding Gilmore Girls, which was a totally weird pregnancy situation, because Lane was sick upon her return from her honeymoon, which was the first time she had sex. I am skeptical that her symptoms would have shown up so early in the pregnancy. And yes, that the struggling band-members never considered termination, even if Lane’s mom is exteremely religious. Back when Party of Five was on, the oldest girl was pregnant and she had a miscarriage on her way to the abortion clinic. Last season, in Grey’s Anatomy, Sandra Oh’s character had an unintended pregnancy which she was intend on aborting. She had an ectopic pregnancy, however, so never had to make the decision.
Reb: But I also forgive their sudden decision to have the kid because they were waiting to actually feel something one way or the other; seeing the baby made them feel like they could handle it, so they decided to. That’s a good point. My problem is the idea that it had to be decided right then, forever, without allowing them time to think about it over a period of at least a few days; and that the moment of emotion there could override other serious considerations that just weren’t mentioned or were glossed over, most of them considerations specific to the woman involved. I like the show a lot, too, and I love that it does question a lot of social norms, but yeah, that smug, entitled perspective really gets me sometimes. RonnieTalkToRussia: I just never really doubted, deep down in my soul (which is where I process Scrubs episodes), that they would have the baby, and that they would decide to have it by the end of that very episode. Ha! Exactly. I mean, I don’t need my sitcoms to be realistic, but come ON. If this generally really liberal show can’t even convince us that there’s a serious question about it, we’ve got a long way to go. I’m glad to hear from people that other shows have handled it better, though. As for the Gilmore Girls situation with Lane, I actually didn’t have too much of a problem with it, because it’s been made clear that Lane is very conservative in such matters — she waited to have sex until she got married, etc. I would have liked it better if there was a conversation about it, but I can live with it the way they did it. What I really don’t like about that scenario is that as far as we know at this point, she’s still only had sex once with her husband, and hated it.
I have to agreed that Zach Braff (especially as JD) is REALLY getting on my nerves. He’s taking that “spokesman of his generation” thing a leetle too seriously. I didn’t mind the episode — it was clear from the start that they were conflicted about whether or not to get an abortion, and that if one of them had felt very strongly that she should abort, the other would have gone along with it. So I liked that it was shown as a question/conflict without an easy answer. I also found it interesting that the woman who told the story about having an abortion when she was 19 is the currently pregnant mother of a 3-year-old. So much for, “Only women who hate babies get abortions.”
And hey – new babies are a great way to make a series drag on and on and on beyond it’s time.>>> Well, considering the series has never been a ratings-grabber, I think most involved said this is the last season no matter what.
The only recent show I can think of that’s handled the abortion issue is Battlestar Galactica, and I wouldn’t say they handled it especially WELL. However, about a billion years ago, I was a devotee of All My Children (shut up). I recall a storyline, probably from the early to mid nineties (because that’s when I was watching the show, at least on a regular basis), in which a character had an abortion and the matter was handled in a fairly pro-choice manner by the writers. Admittedly, they gave themselves and the audience an ‘out’ by making the girl pregnant via rape, but most of the characters were unaware of that fact. So while the context was one of those ‘exception’ abortions even many anti-choicers are okay with, most of the dialogue and events regarding the abortion were assuming that the young woman in question was pregnant via consensual sex. Because she didn’t want to talk about it, and she sure as hell didn’t want to reveal something even more traumatic to family members she wasn’t close to, and who were being judgmental like whoa re: her pregnancy and plans to abort. And her decision to keep the specifics of the situation to herself was presented as perfectly reasonable (and possibly as a re-assertion of control over her own life). She hadn’t wanted anybody to know she was pregnant, it got out anyway and led to all kinds of drama, and the last thing she wanted was to lose even more of her privacy and autonomy by being forced to talk about the rape to hostile people as a way of justifying her desire for an abortion. As I recall, after the pregnancy became public knowledge, a platonic male friend (who was one of the few people who did know about her having been raped) claimed to be the father, because he knew damn well she didn’t want to talk about it. And the anti-choice characters were by and large portrayed as judgmental slut-shamers rather than people who were all about the baybeez. Maybe an anti-choice person could watch that story and maintain their notion that abortion after rape is ‘different’, and the girl’s parents and other anti-choicers would have been justified in their condemnation if she had in fact become pregnant from consensual extramarital sex, but it’d take a fair bit of fast thinking. I mean, women seeking abortions don’t tattoo their reasoning on their foreheads. And the girl’s sister was portrayed as a principled pro-lifer who was prepared to be flexible and compassionate when dealing with an actual person she loved wanting an abortion, as opposed to some theoretical stranger. They had a conversation which went roughly along the lines of, “I disagree with your decision, but it’s obvious I can’t talk you out of it. I love you, and I want to support you through this, regardless of my personal feelings on the subject.” And it was only after Big Sister decided not to be judgmental and guilt-trippy that Little Sister confided in her regarding the circumstances. The sequence of events was very much Big Sister proving herself trustworthy and prepared to respect her decision, and then Little Sister explaining, rather than Little Sister proving herself trustworthy and non-slutty by explaining the circumstances, and Big Sister then deciding that THIS abortion was different. And ironically enough, the parents who were yelling their heads off about the abortion would probably have felt rather better about it if they’d known, but it wasn’t their daughter’s job to make them feel better about it. There was also a scene outside an abortion clinic in which protesters were portrayed as the howling mob of hyenas they usually are in real life (I’ve done clinic escorting in the past, and it was not fun). The scene was definitely written from the pregnant girl’s POV, with having to get past these loons being yet another ordeal. And then another regular character just happened to be part of the group who were protesting (even though, if memory serves, there’d never been any mention before that ep or any mention after of him being someone who was into clinic protesting, but you know, soap opera). And he told off his buddies, presumably because seeing someone you know having abuse screamed at them is a lot harder to justify than some slut you’ve never met before and never will again. Now, that part was fairly fake, to my mind. His lecture about non-violence and non-hateful protest and hating the sin, not the sinner was kind of…sappy. Not to mention the implausibility of an obviously reality-based person having thought for five minutes that hanging out with clinic protesters would be a brilliant idea. But yeah, pretty unsympathetic portrayal of these people. Far from a perfect storyline. I hated how suffering in the form of rape served as a way to ‘redeem’ a bad girl and turn her into a heroine. Ugh. But all in all, the abortion storyline was presented in a pretty damn pro-choice way. At times it was cringe-worthily Public Service Announcement about it. I recall the character having a conversation with a total stranger in the clinic waiting room in which the stranger reveals that her boyfriend is pressuring her to have an abortion and of course, the regular character gives her this big speech about how she has to make her own decisions (even though they’ve known each other all of ninety seconds and the woman then disappears into the black hole of day players). But I guess props to the writers for showing that being pro-choice doesn’t mean being pro-abortion except if that’s what the woman actually wants. I just wish they could’ve done it a little more subtly. Anvils to the head kind of hurt. But all in all, pretty well done for network TV, and a pretty pro-choice view espoused by all the reality-based sympathetic characters, regardless of their personal feelings (i.e. Big Sister remains pro-life in principle but doesn’t insist she be allowed to dictate what happens to Little Sister’s uterus). Brutal portrayal of asshole anti-choicers in the form of the parents and the clinic protesters, but to my mind, not an inaccurate portrayal. And a great many reminders that not every woman who wants an abortion for a ‘good’ reason is willing to share her reasoning with strangers.