Documenting Roe on-screen

How debates around abortion have been portrayed in cinema and beyond

It has emerged in recent weeks that the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) has privately voted to strike down the constitutional right to abortion as determined by the landmark Roe vs Wade case in 1973, according to a draft of the majority opinion which was leaked by Politico.

This has also brought to light Reversing Roe, an Emmy-nominated documentary currently streaming on Netflix, directed by Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg, which traces the history of abortion rights.

The documentary covers roughly 50 years of the history of abortion in about 100 minutes. Reversing Roe contextualises the politicisation of the issue of abortion which was once, according to Linda Greenhouse, an abortion historian, considered a social and medical problem. By highlighting the key events that made the issue of abortion a partisan issue in the U.S. today, the documentary stitches together interviews with chaplains, medical experts, feminists, senators, and advocates of pro-life and pro-choice movements to present the audience with an accurate chronology of abortion rights in the country.

Abortion as a theme is not alien to the silver screen. The topic, as a plot point, made noise even during the era of silent films, with titles such as Where Are My Children, a silent drama written and produced by America’s first woman director Lois Weber. However, their interpretation by the audience, the imagery used to depict the act, and the values associated with the act fluctuated depending on the socio-political context they were produced in. For instance, in Where Are My Children, a woman who gets an abortion to prevent children from interfering with her social life, is shown to go on to lead a life of longing for a family she might have had if she did not go through the procedure.

Abortion — an issue that is usually associated with second-wave feminism — broke through the silver screen even before the demands of the first wave were realised.

Two decades after the success of TV shows like I Love Lucy that familiarised viewers with the format, the subject of abortion breached the walls of the living rooms of everyday Americans with Maude. A two-part episode in the first season titled ‘Maude’s Dilemma’ shows Maude, who is 47 years old, contemplating the option of abortion with her husband who affirms her agency and promises to stand by her. Mere two months after the episode’s release, the 7-2 majority opinion of the SCOTUS which was written by Justice Harry Blackmun paved way for the recognition of abortion as a constitutional right in the U.S., effectively striking down a wide range of state-level abortion limitations applied before foetal viability.

The subject (of abortion) since, has started to appear relatively frequently on the silver and the small screen. Even after legalisation, directors and writers like Eleanor Bergstein felt the need to highlight the plight of women seeking abortion in the pre-Roe era to serve as cautionary tales. In the 1987 romantic dance drama Dirty Dancing which is set in 1963, Bergstein showcased abortion as a key theme. The descriptions of folding tables and dirty knives used during her illegal abortion that almost end up killing Rockette Penny (Cynthia Rhodes) are spelt out loud and clear for the audience to highlight the grave and life-threatening nature of illegal abortions. Movies like Portrait of a Lady on Fire have also brought to the fore the lengths women have been willing to go from time immemorial to get an abortion.