An Anti-Choice Holiday Journey

Oh friends… Oh. Friends.

This week I went to a family holiday party at a church and saw such a flyer I could hardly believe it was real. I could just show you the whole thing, indeed you can skip to the end if you want, but what I’d really like is to take you on the full journey.

So there I was, waiting for my kid to get back from the bathroom when I looked up at a cork board filled with the usual flyers and one very special flyer for a movie night.

12467934_10206550241928713_1257123678_n-002

It’s a Church Movie Event and the movie is called Sarah’s Choice. I wonder what on earth she could possibly be choosing? How can we know!?

12467934_10206550241928713_1257123678_n-003 — *Look, it’s the international hand symbol for pregnancy!*

Yeah. Sarah is pregnant and she has to choose not to have an abortion through some really labored Dickensian plot devices. Isn’t it clever that they call it Sarah’s Choice? Here’s the IMDB movie synopsis:

Sarah Collins is considering an abortion. Before she makes her final decision, she is presented with three visions causing her to think about the impact on her future.

Sarah obviously needs some visions to help her consider the future. How could a woman possibly come to the right decision on her own?

I found a full plot summary here (linked with Do Not Link). So clearly Sarah gets pregnant out of wedlock (only unmarried women consider having abortions…but not really)

Sarah decides to tell her un-motivated and immature boyfriend she is pregnant.

Oh no, are you telling me that her boyfriend is immature and irresponsible?! I would literally never have guessed that. And clearly Sarah’s “friends and coworkers pressure her to get an abortion.” Sarah has zero agency. She’s also got a friend who had an abortion and “while she doesn’t regret the decision it still haunts her.”

arrested development eye roll lucille bluth

And now for her three Christmas Carol-style visions that a lonely old woman at the family planning clinic told her she would have. Well…they aren’t actually Christmas Carol style because they’re all of different moments in a theoretical future where she decides to continue her pregnancy and have the baby. In the third vision this happens:

Sarah then asks Matt, “Are you glad we did it? Are you glad we got married?” “It wasn’t like we had much of a choice.” Matt responds, “Oh we had a choice, and we made the right one.” Sarah looks endearingly at a Christmas ornament that says “mom” on it.

“It wasn’t like we had much of a choice”?! For real? This is the magical future vision that’s supposed to convince her to have the baby and marry her boyfriend? “Well I knocked you up so I guess I had to marry you.” I’m overwhelmed by the romance.

Maybe the best part, though, is when – as part of her third vision – she finds out that SHE IS THE LONELY OLD WOMAN! Yes, that lonely old woman who told her she would have three visions of her future is her if she decides to have an abortion. I’m not sure about the time-travel implications there, but…interesting.

It is at this point that Sarah “breaks down in repentance” and decides to have the baby. You see, her dad died at some point and she had drifted away from god but now she’s so happy that her dad is in heaven and…wait…why is this suddenly about her dad? Oh right, everything in a woman’s life revolves around one man or other.

What’s been amazing for me though is looking at the way that people who would actually watch a movie like this talk about it. For example, here’s a line from the shortened plot summary:

Though raised in a Christian home, Sarah becomes pregnant by her boyfriend.

How is her being raised in a Christian home in any way connected her getting pregnant by her boyfriend? I wonder if the reviewer is aware that Christianity is not actually a contraceptive.

Since I wasn’t going to watch the movie, I checked out the message boards for it on IMDB, which is where I found this gem…

What I want to know is what world is a 31 year old woman considered to be a young woman? I mean come on now. Aren’t there other actual young Christian girls singers that you could use for this part? Rebecca St. James is almost old enough to be a Grandmother.

If you think that 31 is “almost old enough to be a Grandmother” then we need to discuss the age at which you think most women are having children, because no.

And then…

Plus at her age who the hell cares if she is going to have a baby? I can’t see any reason to have a conflict. So what she is going to be a singer? I am pretty damn sure that female singers do that all the time. It sure doesn’t hurt their careers.

Nope. At 31 you couldn’t possibly be conflicted about having a baby and having a baby has never hurt any woman’s career. Never, not ever.

But let’s finish by returning to what is maybe the best part of it all. Let’s look at the whole poster…

sarahschoicewithcircle

No childcare for the anti-abortion movie event. It’s always nice to see how people who don’t want women to (have a right to) choose abortion support women who do have children.

2 thoughts on “An Anti-Choice Holiday Journey”

jasonmyer says:

January 4, 2016 at 2:33 am

>No childcare for the anti-abortion movie event.

American reproductive politics in a nutshell.

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Rebecca Griffin says:

January 6, 2016 at 2:35 am

I wish I couldn’t believe it was real, but I’m not at all surprised. I watched a short film that anti-choicers (including Justin Bieber’s mother) were using to raise money for crisis pregnancy centers. The pregnant woman has a drunk, abusive husband who calls her a whore. She almost commits suicide, but then decides against it and her baby turns out to be Beethoven! Their propaganda is ridiculous.

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