NBC's "Friday Night Lights" Depicts Teen Having Abortion
By Kortney Blythe
Sarah Seltzer, a regular blogger on the rabidly pro-abortion web site RH Reality Check, just posted raving reviews about an episode of the TV show "Friday Night Lights" in which a character gets an abortion. I’ve previously discussed how more TV shows are depicting young people rejecting abortion in favor of adoption or raising the child. Meanwhile, abortion advocates grumble over what they see as a stigma surrounding abortion on TV. They just can’t stand to see characters actually make the right decision for their child.
Instead, Seltzer would rather a show “break that barrier” by “depicting a character having an abortion in a very nonpolitical, personal way … [one who] arrive[s] at this decision from an honest, intensely personal, non-ideological standpoint.”
First, abortion is not a political issue; it’s a human rights violation. Second, no amount of gushy words like “honest” or “personal” can cover up the brutal truth—they’re talking about dismembering a baby. And that barrier she wants broken is people’s natural tendency to feel—at the very least—discomfort, but more often disgust, over abortion. She wants to desensitize the majority of Americans who have conscionable objections to the slaughter of innocent people by portraying it as no big deal. This is a common tactic of godless secularists—shove immorality into people’s faces via television shows until they lose their aversion to it and start to embrace it.
On the episode, Becky, distraught over rejection by an older man, has a fling with another boy, Luke. She's pregnant and initially wants an abortion, but Luke causes her to think more about it. Her mother had her as a teenager, and this also causes her to pause.
When Becky tells her mother, she’s furious and in favor of the abortion. Apparently, in their fictitious world, the state law mandates that the doctor tell them about the age of the baby—which upsets them—just not enough to dissuade them from going forward with the killing.
Before the abortion, Becky tells an adult friend, Tami, that she feels “weird” about it. Tami says that’s because “it’s a hard decision.” But why is it hard? If it’s just a surgery to remove some sort of foreign invader from one’s body, what’s so hard or weird about it?
Becky gives reasons why the abortion seems best: no money, still young, in school and the overused excuse that having a baby will “throw my life away.” Her mother’s insistence that she have the abortion also leads her to think, “I was her mistake and she has just struggled and hurt and everyday she wanted better.” What a sad thing for a daughter to feel about her own existence.
In a moment of clarity, Becky considers, “Maybe I could take care of this baby and maybe I would be good at it and I could love it and I would be there for it.” Once again, when the possibility of not killing the “product of conception” is discussed, there’s all of a sudden a “baby” involved. But as soon as abortion is decided upon, that “baby” reverts to being a pregnancy, clump of cells, fetus, embryo or any number of dehumanizing euphemisms.
She tragically concludes, “I can't take care of a baby. I can't.” Wait, a woman can’t do something? But I thought “reproductive rights” empowered women to do anything they want? Shouldn’t the feminist response then be, “Yes, you can”? Aren’t all of your options attainable? Of course, even if it were the case that she couldn’t take care of a baby, there are millions of couples who want to and absolutely could take care of a baby. Why not give a couple the gift of a child?
In the end, she tells the father, Luke, “It was the right choice.” What a warped world we live in where murdering a tiny, helpless child is “right.”
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personal decisiion, I think no matter what you do, after the words"your pregnent" are uttered, life is changed. And I always thought that after the fact of abortion would be the hardest part. In any situation of termination there are consequences. Maybe it is because I am older and know what regrets are that I have this opinion. Every person has but one person to be responsible for and that is themselves. And regrets are never gone. SO! Whether you have the child for adoption , or abort, or keep the child your life is forever different. You have to decide how it is going to be different and which option you can live with best.
And lastly whether you agree with this TV show or not, it should provide food for thought and not be a recommendation for what should or should not be done.
Until adoption agencies start complaining that they're running out of adoptable children , the "keep it so you can put it up for adoption to a 'wanting' couple" argument is... Well I guess obtuse.
It ignores the reality that there are already too many orphans in need of a loving home.
Not that argument itself is bad, but it ignores the reality that for every fetus kept for the purpose of putting it up for adoption, an already living breathing child will go another day without parents. The older an orphan gets, the less likely that child will ever find a home.
I fully support abortion for teenagers . They should abort now and wait until they can give their future children a far better chance at life. Children born into poverty have to work their way out from the start, children born into the middle class will have a much higher chance of staying middle class and providing a good home for their children. It's a cycle. It's not pretty, but teenage mothers only contribute to our problem with poverty as they have almost no base of financial support and all they earn will be devoted, not to a proper start on life, but to support a child that should be offered a better life. Children don't get to decide who they are born to, but we parents do get to decide what they are born in to.
Just because a fetus CAN become a grown human doesn't mean it should be considered something it is not. Human fetus does NOT equal human being. It is simply a declaration of ignorance and absolutism to declare otherwise and I'm not immoral for saying so. There is a point at which the continuation of that pregnancy does become a matter of importance, but there is a decent buffer of a few months before that becomes a reality.
A one month old fetus does not have a decernable heart beat and is barely larger than a couple millimeters. It does not resemble a human being, it looks similar to what almost every other mammal looks like at that stage of fetal development. It does not require any "dismemberment" to abortion a 30 day old fetus and the procedure itself is closer to deuche(sp?) than it is to some sort of cruel "dismemberment" of a living human baby . It is a lie these anti-choice, anti- woman neophytes use to pull at your heart strings because appeals to emotion are difficult to ignore and cloud reasoned judgement.
It's a cruel world in which abortion is necessary, but that's the world we live. Get over it and instead of pretending that abortion (of which 97% are performed in the first trimester, ie as soon as the woman realizes she is pregnant) is murder , why don't so called "pro-lifers" join with organizations like Planned Parenthood and work to inform our youths about contraception, family planning, the benefits of waiting to concieve, and getting a good start on their lives. Getting that message out will reduce abortions, increase the success of the living children, and reduce the orphan population. Being pro-life and supporting abstinence only is no different than shooting yourself in the foot. And being pro-life while pushing the adoption argument means you don't really care about living humans, only fetal tissue.
To the author though:
" What a sad thing for a daughter to feel about her own existence."
coming from a "believer" that would probably agree that she is a wretched sinner, that statement is pretty funny.
I enjoyed this article. I was actually impressed the writers of FNL went through with one of their chore characters having the abortion . You dont see that too often on TV and especially a Network show. In the article you wrote, "I’ve previously discussed how more TV shows are depicting young people rejecting abortion in favor of adoption or raising the child "
When were you seeing many abortions on TV??? Outside of Maude in the 70's, and Claire Fisher on Six Feet Under I am having trouble coming up with many. I think the only reason you dont see it more is because of backlash like this. But I do applaud FNL for the courage, because right or wrong thats whats really going on out there.
it's a personal choice. you all freak out way too much. you say everyone else is overreacting as you nuke a man for chucking a rock. it's all paranoia. abortion in some circumstances is necessary. i'm personally for adoption , but it's your choice. until that baby leaves your body, it is a part of you. so suck it up. you cannot control another person's choices on how they have or don't have a child . the second someone can, we will cease to be a true democracy . if you don't believe me, try halflife 2.
Since you're not going to check the babys' DNA and make the connection that it's not the mothers ' liver, why stop at birth? Why not abort the child , at anytime during those first eighteen years, if the mother feels overwhelmed and decides motherhood isn't for her?
I don't follow anyone, because those that appear to be on the same path usually end up just getting in my way.
You are not basing your response on a video game? I really did not read that, did I? I am missing something, right?
A baby is only a baby when it's wanted? Is H2O only water when were thirsty?
I don't follow anyone, because those that appear to be on the same path usually end up just getting in my way.
Also, our world hardly sucks... that's like saying that down sucks... our world simply is.
and it sucks as well.
I don't follow anyone, because those that appear to be on the same path usually end up just getting in my way.
Cancer, of having cancer does 'suck' but that hardly implies that the sum total of reality also sucks