‘Aclump of cells” as a description of the unborn was rendered untenable by advances in ultrasound technology. The preferred strategy now is to change the subject, speculating a series of catastrophes and misfortunes associated with bringing a child to term: “If I don’t have this abortion, I won’t be able to finish college, go to law school, marry the man of my dreams,” etc. Or it can be retrospective, as when Michelle Williams, in accepting her Golden Globe, said she wouldn’t have been able to win the award “without employing a woman’s right to choose.” Whatever the specific circumstances, the justification is always the same: My abortion is (or was) necessary, and I know that for a fact.
Blonde, a biopic about Marilyn Monroe written and directed by Andrew Dominik and released last month on Netflix, has challenged this narrative. By engaging seriously with both the humanity of the unborn and the uncertainty involved in choosing abortion, it has, perhaps expectedly, proved unpopular with abortion advocates. Feminists went into an uproar upon the release. Planned Parenthood condemned it as having “contributed to abortion stigma.”
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