Joan Holloway Harris admited to having two (illegal) abortions; one by a “midwife” (presumably when she was younger) and one by her current physician before the show started. She backed out of getting a 3rd at the last minute. She also very discretly asked a junior secretary if she needed one in the pilot. Betty Draper Francis also considered an abortion (a subject which her neighbor Francine was suspiciously knowledgable), but again decided against it.
And do British shows count? Because Skins did something that no American TV show (even on premium cable) would dare do.
Jal got pregnant with Chris’s baby. They were both teenagers; she was headed to a prestigious music conservatory; he was a party animal going nowhere and they’d broken up. While she was debating over whether or not to keep it Chris died of a brain haemorrhage. She still went through with the abortion. This was presented as the best option and she wasn’t vilified in any way for it.
The few episodes I’ve seen of the American version were bowdlerized crap. I shudder to think how they’ll adapt that particular subplot. :eek:
Wasn’t she all about getting Peggy on the birth control pill in the first episode, though? Why would she have needed so many? Or was she not taking birth control before?
Sorry, missed the edit window. I think there was more than financial concerns behind her decision; she is struggling to keep their marriage together, and pretty much only for the sake of her kids (after Bosco opened up about how much his parents’ divorce hurt him.) Only a couple of weeks before, she’d kicked Fred out of the house (thinking for good) because of his alcoholism. He’d been busted for DUI, picking up the kids from school.
I think it’s a lot easier to say “We’ll find a way, somehow” when the issue is just money. When you have grave and reasonable doubts about whether your partner is fit to be a husband or father, that’s another thing altogether.
As she was showing Peggy around another secretary was crying in the ladies room. Joan said “Are you late? Do you need to see Dr Dr. Emerson?” I missed it at the time, but in retrospect it’s pretty damn obvious what Joan was refering to. That was Joan’s regular gyno; the one she refered all the new girls to for contraceptives (something most doctors wouldn’t even prescribe to unmarried women then, in some states it was even illegal for them to do so), and the one who performed her 2nd “procedure”.
Birth control pills only came onto the market in 1960; the year the show started. They were a very new thing. Before that Joan would’ve been relying on; a diaphram, condoms, or the rythym method. As she got more experianced she probally started using a combination of the 3 before going on the pill. The midwife one probally happened when she was much younger; like in college or even a teenager (Joan was born in 1931). Before she was very savy about contraception or had the connections to find a doctor who’d perform one.
I was actually thinking of starting a thread on that; I’m hoping that the writers don’t go the usual stupid tv route and make her fall in love with the baby as soon as she sees the ultrasound, thereby invalidating childfree by choice as a lifestyle choice once again (tv is notorious for this - childfree by choice is apparently a pathology that can be cured by finding the right man/looking at your baby’s ultrasound). The discussions that Christina and her husband are having are great so far (if a bit late, since most childfree by choice people don’t pair up with people who want kids if they can help it, but it does happen).
There was a Battlestar Galactica episode which centered on the political question of whether abortion should be allowed at all (complicated by the fact that the human race is down to 50,000 members), but there was also a specific character who was looking to get one. She ends up going through with it, despite it being prohibited. She was just a one-shot character for that episode, though, not one of the regulars.
Roslin’s decree was much more draconian in the original draft. Not only would abortion be banned so would all forms of contraception except for women in a few reserved occupations (like Viper pilots). I don’t know why Ron D. Moore bothered to water it down.
I can’t believe no one’s brought up one of the earliest & weirdest abortions on TV: Cybill Shepherd’s character on Moonlighting. She actually goes through with it, IIRC, and it’s depicted in a fantasy sequence where an angel whisks the fetus away.
Buffalo Bill (one of the several failed attempts to find a sitcom format for Dabney Coleman) had Bill knock up his sometimes girlfriend, JoJo, who got an abortion. Other than Maude, I think that may be the only network sitcom that had a major character choose abortion.
In the show Weeds one of the kids gets his teenage girlfriend pregnant (intentionally, safety pin through the condom) to keep her from going off to an Ivy League school. At first it’s suggested they’ll keep it, but after she tells her parents they take her to a clinic to get it terminated.
In a later season, the mom gets pregnant and briefly considers an abortion, but decides against it, eventually having the baby (who subsequently got written out of the show).
I don’t remember the name of the TV movie, it was one of those on Lifetime.
An American Army general, a woman, who is involved in a small mid-East war, is a heroine.
Like Eisenhow they get her to run for President. At one point microphones are being shoved at her and the reporters are hollering questions. When asked about her stance on abortion she replies, I forget the dialogue, but then another reporter asks if she herself has ever had an abortion. She goes very still for a moment then says she did have one once. I was surprised the movie had her being asked if she had ever had one. and then further surprised when she answered in the afirmative. I’d have snarled “none of your business!”