Abortion is at once a ubiquitous human experience and one that largely remains unspoken and unseen. It’s been performed since antiquity for women from all walks of life in many cultures, yet it is largely treated as taboo, and depictions of abortion in film are no exception. Films that do include abortion plotlines often avoid portraying the procedure itself, and this exclusion — whether it be intentional or incidental — may reinforce the regard for such portrayals as gruesome or gratuitous.
No matter how viewers might instinctively react to seeing abortion depicted onscreen, film narratives that deal frankly with diverse experiences of seeking, having, and living with the aftermath of an abortion can serve to uplift and normalize it and also caution against the harrowing consequences of restricting reproductive rights. Especially in the post-Roe landscape in America, we need more stories that realistically confront firsthand experiences with abortion. Let’s explore the roles of solitude and solidarity in three films that depict surgical abortions occurring outside the “safe” context of a sanctioned medical facility, each under a different set of legal circumstances.