{"id":1173,"date":"2007-12-12T13:54:00","date_gmt":"2007-12-12T13:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/12\/pro-life-pro-choice-could-it-possibly-be-both\/"},"modified":"2007-12-12T13:54:00","modified_gmt":"2007-12-12T13:54:00","slug":"pro-life-pro-choice-could-it-possibly-be-both","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/12\/pro-life-pro-choice-could-it-possibly-be-both.html","title":{"rendered":"Pro-life? Pro-choice? Could it possibly be both?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>
If ever there was a much-debated topic where people needed to learn to just let words mean what they say, abortion might be it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Earlier this year, the commentary on films like Waitress<\/a><\/i> and Knocked Up<\/a><\/i> went in some curious and bizarre directions, reaching its nadir with Mireya Navarro\u2019s ridiculous claim in the New York Times<\/a><\/i> that \u201cMany conservative bloggers have claimed \u2018Knocked Up\u2019 as an anti-choice movie\u201d.<\/p>\n

Uh, no we didn\u2019t. We might have said the film has a \u201cpro-life\u201d sensibility, because it makes the pro-abortion advocates look callous and stupid while casting the decision to keep the baby in a positive light, but I don\u2019t think anyone claimed that the film took a stance against the idea that the film\u2019s main characters should have had the legal right to make<\/i> that decision.<\/p>\n

As with Knocked Up<\/i>, so now with Juno<\/a><\/i>. Lou Lumenick<\/a> of the New York Post<\/i> wanders into similar confusion when he writes:<\/p>\n

Harry Forbes<\/b>, the embattled head of the film office of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops . . . , in his review of \u201cJuno\u201d lauds what he calls the flick\u2019s \u201cstrong pro-life message.\u201d Really? As someone who is strongly pro-choice, I came away from this movie with exactly the opposite message. True, the pregnant title character decides<\/i> against having an abortion; she decides to carry the fetus to term and to give it up for adoption. The key word here is that Juno makes a deliberative choice<\/i>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Quite so. But where\u2019s the contradiction? \u201cPro-life\u201d means you favour the continuation of a person\u2019s life. \u201cPro-choice\u201d means you favour giving people the option of continuing or terminating that life. You can be pro-choice without being pro-abortion. You can be pro-life without being anti-choice. You can be anti-abortion while being pro-euthanasia. And so on, and so on.<\/p>\n

There are many facets to these debates, and no one is served when terms that apply to one of those facets are confused with terms that apply to other facets. Hence, in my own review<\/a> of Juno<\/i>, I made a point of saying that the recent films in this genre have had \u201cimplicitly pro-life \u2014 not \u2018anti-choice,\u2019 but certainly pro-life \u2014 sensibilities\u201d. In discussions like these, a little more clarity \u2014 and complexity \u2014 would be a good thing, I think.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If ever there was a much-debated topic where people needed to learn to just let words mean what they say, abortion might be it. Earlier this year, the commentary on films like Waitress and Knocked Up went in some curious and bizarre directions, reaching its nadir with Mireya Navarro\u2019s ridiculous claim in the New York […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nPro-life? Pro-choice? 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