Commentary by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
In what is surely one of the most tasteless endorsements of Planned Parenthood ever depicted on television, ABC’s Scandal not only featured an abortion being performed while Silent Night plays in the background, but includes scenes with lawmakers who bicker over why the abortion giant needs taxpayer funding.
The Washington Post wrote a glowing article about last night’s episode which featured the main character, Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) who has an abortion. The audience had no idea she was pregnant, only knew that she was finally together with President Fitz (Tony Goldwyn) who also didn’t know she was pregnant.
“In the middle of the episode, viewers suddenly saw Olivia arrive at a medical office and then lie down on an operating table as a doctor began the procedure. There was no dialogue from Olivia — just the sound of ‘Silent Night’ playing in the background, along with voice-over of Olivia’s father Rowan (Joe Morton) delivering this speech in another scene:
“‘Family is a burden … a pressure point, soft tissue, an illness, an antidote to greatness. You think you’re better off with people who rely on you, depend on you, but you’re wrong, because you will inevitably end up needing them, which makes you weak, pliable. Family doesn’t complete you. It destroys you’.”
How’s that for a family-friendly message?
The episode also features a congressional battle over Planned Parenthood funding in which Mellie Grant (Bellamy Young), the president’s ex-wife and a junior senator, is made into a hero for helping to kill a Senate bill that would have made Planned Parenthood funding discretionary.
The Post goes on to quote everyone who liked the episode, mostly from the .002 percent of the population who agrees with the kind of baseless values depicted in the show.
For example, actress Portia de Rossi, the lesbian “wife” of Ellen DeGeneris, gushed on Twitter: “This is a conversation we need to be having. I’m beyond proud of @ShondaRhimes [creator of Scandal] for one of the bravest storylines I’ve ever seen.”
We can only imagine what her idea of family is if she thinks this crudely depicted enactment of anti-family sentiment is “brave”.
However, it was refreshing to read the comments from readers of the Post’s article who were mostly disgusted by the show.
For example, a commenter named Rrazon wrote: “The juxtaposition of Olivia’s abortion while playing a Christian hymn about the birth of Jesus was tasteless and classless. Celebrating a woman killing her child to the Ave Maria song demonstrates how low we’ve stooped as a nation and as human beings. What a slap in the face to Christians everywhere. If they pulled this trick with a Muslim holiday, there would be riots. The producers were sending a very specific message, and it was not in the holiday spirit of love and togetherness.”
Even a pro-choice commenter was unimpressed: “As a supporter of choice who finds the idea of Christians being insulted by not having snowflakes on coffee cups absurd, put this way, it does seem a little “In Yo’ face!” which doesn’t help the cause of choice.”
Newsbusters’ Alexa Mouteveli agreed, calling the entire hour-long episode “an advertisement for Planned Parenthood” with the worst scene being the abortion which takes place while one of the world’s most beloved Christmas hymns plays in the background. “ . . . [W]atching a doctor take his instruments between Olivia’s legs, and the hint of a smile on her lips at the end, it is a truly vile, stomach churning scene,” she writes.
Even more heartless is the episode’s conclusion which features Olivia sitting down with a glass of wine, smiling at her Christmas tree and listening to Ave Maria playing in the background. What a happy ending – for her.
This episode was more than just “in yo face” to Christians. This show was an insult to humanity.
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