The hit TV show ‘Scandal’ has been accused of romanticising abortions.
How and why?
Spoilers and major criticism below…
Currently in its fifth season the political drama now sees its protagonist Olivia Pope (portrayed by Kerry Washington) go public with her affair with the President of the United States.
Alas, as his ex-wife fights to protect Planned Parenthood, the president entertains guests at the White House at a Christmas party unaware that Pope is aborting their baby.
This has rubbed a number of the show’s fans the wrong way. For, the scene sees the character go through with the difficult process as an uplifting rendition of Gurber and Mohr‘s ‘Silent Night.’
Their problem? The scene’s glamorous nature.
The Media Research Centre slammed it with:
Hollywood’s liberal values permeate movies and television. Last night’s episode of ABC’s Scandal was pretty much an hour-long advertisement for Planned Parenthood. In the most disturbing scene, the main character has an abortion to ‘Silent Night’ (a hymn celebrating the birth of Jesus) playing in the background. This is Hollywood’s moral depravity on full display.
Planned Parenthood, who were recently accused of selling the body parts of aborted babies, countered by praising showrunner Shonda Rhimes for raising awareness for its services.
It said in an official statement:
Tonight, the millions of people who tune into Scandal every Thursday night learned that our rights to reproductive health care are 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 counseling, STI testing, cancer screenings, and safe, legal abortion — millions of people would suffer. And this episode wasn’t the first time one of Rhimes’ characters had an abortion, yet tonight we saw one of our favorite characters make the deeply personal decision that one in three women have made in their lifetime. We applaud Shonda Rhimes tonight — and every Thursday night – for proving that when women are telling our stories, the world will pause and watch. We just hope those in Congress — and throughout the nation — who are steadfast on rolling the clock back on reproductive health care access are taking note.
I love Scandal but this is wrong. Most people don’t know what happens to the baby’s body in abortions.
Nothing happens to it because it isn’t a baby. A clump of cells is simply that. If you’re referring to late-term abortions, those are incredibly rare and not even worth bringing up.
Not even worth bringing up? Please, they are more common than you want to admit. And that “clump of cells” is life believe it or not.
I believe in a woman’s right to choose but I do have to say that it’s interesting that even planned parenthood admits that life can be found in that tissue. Life begins at conception which is why those organs are so valuable. The sooner we admit that the sooner we will have women taking more measures to prevent the pregnancies they do not want. I should say that I am pro choice when it comes to r*** victims.
No, it doesn’t. Educate yourself.
If it isn’t life why waste your time aborting it?
Absolutely NOTHING wrong with abortion. There’s no need for women to throw their futures away because of an accident or because they were forced or r**** into a pregnancy. Before the 20 week mark all women are carrying is essentially a parasitic bundle of cells.
To all you religious nutjobs, don’t reply unless you know what stages the fetus develops through and what the word parasite means.
You’re a pompous idiot. At no point is a fetus referred to as a parasite by the scientific community.