Heather Macgibbon

Screening Choice: the Abortion Issue in American Film from 1900-2000 Heather Macgibbon

The representation of the abortion issue in American film has been deeply effected by the social and historical climate within which these representations are produced. However this does not mean that representations has accurately, or even remotely, resembled the lived experience of people going through the struggle of abortion decisions at any given time. Rather, the representations created are more a reflection of political, social, medical and religious discourse at the time of the films? productions. The Abortion Issue in American Film: 1900-2000 explores how these external discourses shift and change the representation of several key figures in the story of abortion: The Patient, The Abortion Provider, and The Male Partner. These characters are traced and placed in context starting from 1916 through 2000, choosing key films to analyze the changes in representation and their relationships with American values, morals, medicine and politics through the decades.