Abortion on Screen

Shonda Rhimes and the Television Portrayal of Women’s Reproductive Rights in the United States

By E.M. van Hees

June 20, 2017

MA Thesis History: American Studies

Thesis Advisor: Professor M.S. Parry Second Reader: Professor R.V.A. Janssens

Table of Contents

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 3

WHAT’S SHONDA RHIMES GOT TO DO WITH IT? 3 1.1 SHONDA RHIMES AND WOMEN’S REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS 3 1.2 THE IMPORTANCE OF STORYTELLING 6 1.3 PUBLIC ADVOCACY & PLANNED PARENTHOOD 7 1.4 HISTORY OF ABORTION RIGHTS IN THE UNITED STATES 8 1.5 CHAPTER OUTLINE 9

CHAPTER 2: NOBODY SAYS NO TO SHONDA RHIMES 11

PROGRESS IN THE OUTCOME OF ABORTION PLOTLINES 11 INTRODUCTION 11 2.1 ABORTION IN TELEVISION 12 2.1.1 ABORTION OUTCOMES IN THE 2000S 12 2.1.2 PROGRESS IN GREY’S ANATOMY ABORTION OUTCOMES 15 2.1.3 U.S. POLITICS AND THE CONTINUING FIGHT TO LIMIT ABORTION RIGHTS 19 2.2 THE HEALTH EDUCATING ROLE OF GREY’S ANATOMY 20

CHAPTER 3: TAKE A STANCE 24

HOW ABORTION POLITICS BECOME PERSONAL IN PRIVATE PRACTICE 25 INTRODUCTION 25 3.1 THE PERSONAL IS POLITICAL 26 3.1.1 PERSONAL POLITICS AND THE ABORTION DEBATE 26 3.1.2 POLITICS AT OCEANSIDE WELLNESS 27 3.2 PORTRAYING LATE-TERM ABORTION 32 3.2.1 LATE-TERM ABORTION AND THE POLITICS OF REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS 32 3.2.2 ATTACKING THE BAN ON LATE-TERM ABORTION 35 3.2.3 SPEAKING UP AGAINST VIOLENCE 37 3.3 WHAT IT TAKES TO BE A RESIDENT IN SHONDALAND 38 3.3.1 SPEAKING UP ABOUT WOMEN’S REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS 38

CHAPTER 4: THE GLADIATRIX 41

HOW SCANDAL IS TRYING TO SHATTER THE STIGMA SURROUNDING ABORTION 41 INTRODUCTION 41 4.1 GLADIATORS IN SUITS 42 4.1.1 REDEFINING TRADITIONAL GENDER ROLES 42 4.1.2 HYPOCRISY & WHY WASHINGTON D.C. IS THE PLACE TO BE 43 4.2 REDEFINING THE ESTABLISHMENT 45 4.2.1 GOING UP AGAINST THE GRAND OLD PARTY 45 4.2.2 SEXUAL VIOLENCE IN THE U.S. MILITARY 47 4.3 THE POWER OF BEING EXPLICIT 48 4.3.1 VISUALIZING ABORTION LIKE NEVER BEFORE 48 4.3.2 NO PLACE FOR SHAME 50

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CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 53

BIBLIOGRAPHY 57

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Chapter 1: Introduction What’s Shonda Rhimes Got to Do with It?

I am attempting to reflect the world that I live in. Attempting to reflect the medical world that doctors exist in. Attempting to write women as they actually exist. – Shonda Rhimes1

1.1 Shonda Rhimes and Women’s Reproductive Rights

At the 2015 Massachusetts Conference for Women in 2015, a conference providing motivation, networking, skill-building, and inspiration for women, Shonda Rhimes was introduced by television critic Emily Nussbaum as a ‘gladiator’ bringing a new ‘dark and twisty’ language to television. According to Nussbaum, “[c]rucially, she has put women, gay men and lesbians, and people of color at the center rather than the edges of her fictional worlds”.2 Nussbaum is a well-known journalist who writes for The New Yorker and won a Pulitzer Prize for criticism in 2016. The descriptions she uses for Rhimes as a writer producer, and influencer in television mirror the general descriptions and expectations that are held for her as a powerful woman of color. Rhimes has expressed her discontent with her success always being linked to her gender and race, as in August 2014, when she was described as “the most powerful black female in Hollywood” in a draft announcement for an event. She reacted by crossing out ‘female’ and ‘black’ before returning the draft.3 Rhimes argued that these modifiers were not relevant or necessary, as “[t]hey wouldn't say that someone is 'the most powerful white male showrunner in Hollywood.”4 With the success Rhimes has achieved, scholars have analyzed her work within the context of feminist representation and racial diversity. Sociologist Maryann Erigha, analyzed Rhimes’ and her unique success as a black woman in Hollywood, subsequently claiming that the success of Rhimes and a strong black lead character like Olivia Pope are due to the politics

1 Shonda Rhimes, Planned Parenthood Champion of Change Award Acceptance Speech (2017) Ramin Setoodeh, “Read Shonda Rhimes’ Full Speech at Planned Parenthood Gala: ‘Women Should Be Running Things’,” Variety, accessed June 2, 2017. http://variety.com/2017/scene/news/shonda-rhimes-planned-parenthood-read-full-speech-1202407894/ 2 Emily Nussbaum & Shonda Rhimes, “Shonda Rhimes at the 2015 Massachusetts Conference for Women,” Massachusetts Conference for Women, accessed January 29, 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_g-Js-Al4g 3 Lacey Rose, “Shonda Rhimes Opens Up About 'Angry Black Woman' Flap, Messy 'Grey's Anatomy' Chapter and the 'Scandal' Impact,” the Hollywood Reporter, accessed January 27, 2017. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/shonda-rhimes-opens-up-angry-738715 4 Ibid. 3 of crossing over.5 Erigha argues that success in Hollywood can only be achieved by not being “too black”.6 Related to this, communications scholar, Ralina Joseph stated that Rhimes’ onscreen black female characters are elite, professional powerhouses who show great success in their work and complex personal relationships. Furthermore, Joseph argues that the black female leads embrace interracial relationships and friendships, seldom seen in the company of other black women.7 As stated by Nussbaum, Rhimes has put women at the center of her stories. A 2016 thesis analyzed feminist and patriarchal themes in Shonda Rhimes’ series Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, and How to Get Away with Murder. The analysis of feminist and patriarchal themes in these shows illustrated that feminist themes were present in Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal, yet, How to Get Away With Murder also illustrated “rampant patriarchal themes.”8 Even though previous research analyzed Rhimes’ portrayal of feminist values, these analyses have not yet placed this in the scope of women’s reproductive rights. In 2016, Shonda Rhimes received the Producers Guild of America’s Norman Lear Achievement Award in Television.9 The award was named after writer and producer Norman Lear, because he was a pioneer in film and television writing on social issues.10 In 1972, two months before Roe v. Wade legalized abortion in the United States, Lear introduced an abortion narrative to his CBS sitcom Maude. Lear developed two episodes in which the title character decides to terminate her pregnancy and persuades her husband to have a vasectomy. According to Parry, the show’s popularity paved the way for other television shows to address difficult issues.11 Parry argues that Lear had an unusual level of autonomy that may have helped him successfully produce programs illustrating the theme of abortion.12 Rhimes has created a similar situation for herself at ABC Network. In several interviews, she has discussed her privileged position at the network and the fact that she has the freedom to make decisions about

5 Maryann Erigha, “Shonda Rhimes, Scandal, and the Politics of Crossing Over,” The Black Scholar 45(1) (2015): 10. 6 Ibid. 7 Ralina L. Joseph, “Strategically Ambiguous Shonda Rhimes: Respectability Politics of a Black Woman Showrunner,” Souls 18(2-4) (2016): 303. 8 Katelyn C. Roshetko, “A Rhetorical Analyisis of Feminist and Patriarchal Themes within Shonda Rhimes’ Television Shows Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, and How to Get Away With Murder,” Liberty University (2016): 85-86. 9 Kate Stanhope, “Shonda Rhimes to Receive PGA’s 2016 Norman Lear Award,” the Hollywood Reporter, accessed January 30, 2017. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/shonda-rhimes-receive-norman-lear- 837417?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=THR%20Awards%20Alerts_now_2015- 11-05%2010:22:17_kstanhope&utm_term=hollywoodreporter_therace 10 “About,” the Norman Lear Center, accessed January 30, 2017. https://learcenter.org/about/ 11 Manon S. Parry, Broadcasting Birth Control: Mass Media and Family Planning (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2013), 67. 12 Ibid. 4 her shows. She did have some discussions with the network when it came to abortion plotlines on Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal but in other cases she did not even ask: “Part of the luxury of my job is that I don’t necessarily have to ask anybody anymore. I didn’t ask, we just did it.”13 Rhimes is not the only one discussing abortion through her television narratives. Sociologists, Gretchen Sisson and Katrina Kimport studied abortion outcomes in film and television between 1916 and 2013 and they found that the number of abortion plotlines have increased by at least 31% each decade over the decade before.14 In their research into abortion plotlines on American television, Sisson and Kimport concluded that a clear majority of fictional characters retrieving an abortion between 2005 and 2014 were white.15 The percentages of abortion distribution for U.S. women in 2008 show that 36.1% of the abortions were obtained by white women and 29.6% were obtained by black women. Between 2005 and 2014, 87.5% of the abortions in American television were obtained by white women and only 5% were obtained by black women.16 Sisson and Kimport do not provide possible causes for the discrepancy in percentages, however, they do suggest that the underrepresentation of certain populations of women considering abortion on television could contribute to feelings of isolation or internalized stigma and shame.17 Some of the reasons behind having an abortion were also underrepresented in abortion plotlines on television. Financial unpreparedness and prioritizing the needs of existing children were portrayed less frequently and could suggest that abortion is a self-focused decision and that the procedure is wanted instead of needed.18 This thesis will not focus on Rhimes and her portrayal of powerful women or race as a factor in abortion plotlines. Instead, the focus will be on Rhimes’ portrayal of abortion as a part of women’s reproductive rights and how her portrayal of abortion has developed over the course of her shows. This focus combined with an analysis of recent developments and restrictions in the U.S. abortion debate resulted in the following research question: how does Shonda Rhimes portray abortion in her television series and in what ways do these representations relate to recent developments in the U.S. abortion debate?

13 Willa Paskin, “Shonda Rhimes on Grey’s Anatomy’s Recent Abortion Story Line,” Vulture, accessed March 5, 2017. http://www.vulture.com/2011/09/shonda_rhimes_talks_about_grey.html 14 Gretchen Sisson & Katrina Kimport, “Telling Stories About Abortion: Abortion-Related Plots in American Film and Television, 1916-2013,” University of California, San Francisco, December 31, 2013, p. 415. 15 Gretchen Sisson & Katrina Kimport, “Facts and Fictions: Characters Seeking Abortion on American Television, 2005-2014,” Contraception 93 (2016): 449. 16 Ibid. 17 Ibid. 18 Ibid. 5

1.2 The Importance of Storytelling

In portraying a fictional world that reflects her own, or her ideal world, Rhimes has illustrated that in order to make progress, or create acceptance, stories need to be told. When she received the Norman Lear Achievement Award from the Producers Guild of America in 2016, one of the co-chairs of the jury called Rhimes the most passionate and insightful storyteller in entertainment today.19 In 2013, Time listed her in their “2013 TIME 100,” which lists the 100 most influential people in the world. In the accompanying article, Oprah Winfrey described Rhimes as “the storyteller of our time.” She said that the characters Rhimes creates, and the real faults and fears they deal with in her fictional world, can be related to by everybody.20 In 2016, Amy Brenneman, who plays Violet Turner in Rhimes’ show Private Practice, spoke up about her personal attitude towards abortion in a personal column for Cosmopolitan. In this column, she opened up about having an abortion when she was 21. Brenneman says she is part of the 95% of women who have never regretted their decision to terminate a pregnancy. Furthermore, she explains that now she has become a parent, her commitment to reproductive rights and justice for women has only become stronger.21 Brenneman compares the fights for abortion rights and marriage equality in the United States, and concludes that while marriage equality is becoming more accepted, abortion is not. She argues that the difference is related to storytelling, saying “the tide of marriage equality turned when same-gender couples began to tell their very specific stories: not being allowed in the hospital room of their partner, not being able to adopt children together, not being seen as equal to their heterosexual peers.”22 David Moats, editor of the Rutland Herald, won the Pulitzer Prize in 2001 for his series of editorials commenting on the divisive issues arising from civil unions for same-sex couples. Moats argues that the supporters of marriage equality knew that in order to win sympathy for their cause they had to show real people about their lives in a real way.23 The result of sharing these stories is that others saw that people in gay and lesbian

19 Kate Stanhope, “Shonda Rhimes to Receive Norman Lear Award from Producers Guild,” the Hollywood Reporter, accessed January 30, 2017. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/shonda-rhimes-receive-norman-lear-837417 20 Oprah Winfrey, “Shonda Rhimes: Storyteller 43,” Time Magazine, accessed May 30, 2017. http://time100.time.com/2013/04/18/time-100/slide/shonda-rhimes/ 21 Amy Brenneman, “Why I’m Sharing My Abortion Story,” Cosmopolitan, accessed April 2, 2017. http://www.cosmopolitan.com/politics/a54363/amy-brenneman-abortion-story/ 22 Ibid. 23 David Moats, “Through Storytelling, the Case for Full Equality Started to Make Sense to More People,” Vermont Humanities, accessed June 1, 2017. https://www.vermonthumanities.org/through-storytelling-the-case-for-full-equality-started-to-make-sense-to- more-people/ 6 relationships are just like everybody else. Finally, gay marriage became legal in the United States in 2009. The fight for women’s reproductive rights is different but storytelling may be equally important. Even though the procedure has been legal ever since 1973, the stigma has never truly disappeared. The fight for abortion rights hints at a vicious circle, the procedure will only be accepted when people start to share their personal stories. However, as long as the topic is part of a stigma, many women will probably remain too afraid or ashamed to speak publicly about it.

1.3 Public Advocacy & Planned Parenthood

Along with all the success, Rhimes also attracted some negative reviews of her work. She has addressed powerful political topics as part of her storytelling; Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, and Private Practice have all dealt with controversial topics related to women’s reproductive rights. Rhimes has expressed her surprise at the reaction the public had to Scandal’s main character terminating her pregnancy. Rhimes once claimed that she did not view abortion as a controversial topic since it has been legal in the United States for 43 years.24 Instead, she argued that she was merely telling stories that reflect the world we live in. This is a political statement in itself; even though she claimed not to cause any change in the world, she felt that the world she represents through her television is the real world. A world in which abortion is an uncontroversial legal medical procedure. When it comes to her characters who had an abortion on television, Rhimes said “[a]nd Cristina Yang and Olivia Pope have had matter of fact abortions. As is their legal right.”25 Even though Rhimes claimed to just tell realistic stories about strong women, and portraying abortion as a legal option, she recently became more explicit in defending a pro- choice agenda. In April 2017, she joined the national board of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Rhimes was already a board member of the Planned Parenthood affiliate of Los Angeles and has been praised by the federation for her portrayal of women’s health issues and women’s reproductive rights in her shows. This year, she was honored with the Champion of Change award by Planned Parenthood. In her acceptance speech, Rhimes stated that the stories she tells about women’s health are guided by two simple facts:

24 Ibid. 25 Shonda Rhimes, Planned Parenthood Champion of Change Award Acceptance Speech (2017) Ramin Setoodeh, “Read Shonda Rhimes’ Full Speech at Planned Parenthood Gala: ‘Women Should Be Running Things’,” Variety, accessed June 2, 2017. http://variety.com/2017/scene/news/shonda-rhimes-planned-parenthood-read-full-speech-12 02407894/ 7

Fact 1: I just can’t get over the fact that a room full of straight white men who couldn’t find a vulva with two hands and a flashlight are insistent on telling me and all my friends what to do with the vagina we have been driving around America for our entire lives. Fact 2: When women’s health needs are taken care of, when women have the right to determine their reproductive future, to screen and treat STDs, to get life-saving pap smears, their families are stronger, their work lives are more productive, their self- esteem rises and they feel empowered. Women are happier.26

Rhimes is not very subtle in her descriptions of men and their attitudes women’s reproductive rights. These portrayals of weak and ignorant men are at times illustrated in her shows. And this speech underlines the suggestion that she knows what she is arguing in her stories about strong women who are making choices for themselves and being unapologetic about it. Later in her speech, Rhimes has a clear message for people claiming that the world does not work the way she portrays it: “It’s Shondaland. It’s my world. If not to reflect our exact world, then to show you how the world works when a woman is running things.”27 Rhimes’ feminist views are clearly expressed in this speech. This statement goes against her earlier claim about merely representing the world she lives in and it illustrates that Rhimes is not afraid to be explicit in defending her narratives, whether the audience find them realistic or not.

1.4 History of Abortion Rights in the United States

Even though abortion has been legal in the United States since 1973, the debate about abortion and its legality has continued over the years. The most important legislation revolving abortion was decided in the Roe v. Wade case in 1973. This case created a constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy. The court declared access to abortion as a fundamental freedom to be protected by the U.S. constitution. Even though the decision legalized abortion, it also provoked forceful opposition.28 As stated by historian M.S. Parry, both supporters and opponents of women’s reproductive rights have used media to win over public opinion on the abortion issue. This battle over abortion attitudes also expanded in intensity after abortion was

26 Shonda Rhimes, Planned Parenthood Champion of Change Award Acceptance Speech (2017) Ramin Setoodeh, “Read Shonda Rhimes’ Full Speech at Planned Parenthood Gala: ‘Women Should Be Running Things’,” Variety, accessed June 2, 2017. http://variety.com/2017/scene/news/shonda-rhimes-planned-parenthood-read-full-speech-1202407894/ 27 Ibid. 28 Eric Foner, Give Me Liberty! An American History (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2014) 1014. 8 legalized by Roe v. Wade.29 Gallup, an American research-based company who track public opinion, provided numbers about abortion attitudes in the United States between 1975 and 2016. The report shows that public opinion about abortion has fluctuated slightly over the years: in 1975, 21% of Americans believed abortion should be legal under any circumstances and 22% believed abortion should be illegal in all circumstances. In 2016, 29% of Americans believed abortion should be legal under all circumstances and 19% of Americans believed abortion should be illegal in all circumstances.30 While the percentage of U.S. Citizens who think abortion should be illegal in all circumstances has decreased since 1975, the number of citizens that consider themselves “pro-life”, meaning anti-abortion, has increased between 1996 and 2016. In 1996, Gallup asked people “[w]ith respect to the abortion issue, would you consider yourself to be pro-choice or pro-life?”31 According to the results, 37% of the citizens considered themselves pro-life and 56% of the people considered themselves pro-choice. In 2016, the percentage of people who considered themselves pro-choice decreased to 49% and the percentage of people who identified as pro-life increased to 44%.32 These numbers illustrate the difficulty in measuring public opinion when it concerns abortion attitudes. Republican politician John Kasich for example, who ran for the Republican nomination in 2016, said abortion should only be legal in cases of rape, incest, and when it concerns the health of the mother.33 Like him, other conservatives may consider themselves as pro-life while they support abortion under specific circumstances.

1.5 Chapter Outline

This thesis will analyze Rhimes’ portrayal of abortion throughout her different television shows. To gain insight in how her depiction of abortion narratives have evolved over the years, I will analyze her shows chronologically. In chapter 2, I will consider the progress in the narratives on Grey’s Anatomy by comparing Sisson and Kimport’s research on abortion plotlines and how these fit into Rhimes’ narratives. This chapter will also illustrate how Grey’s

29 Manon S. Parry, Broadcasting Birth Control: Mass Media and Family Planning (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2013), 46. 30 “Abortion,” Gallup, accessed June 2, 2017. http://www.gallup.com/poll/1576/abortion.aspx 31 Ibid. 32 Ibid. 33 Michelle Ye Hee Lee, “John Kasich’s abortion policies in Ohio: pro-life except for rape, incest and life of the mother?” the Washington Post, accessed May 28, 2017. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2016/03/25/john-kasichs-abortion-policies-in-ohio-pro- life-except-for-rape-incest-and-life-of-the-mother/?utm_term=.97ba01e1b1cd 9

Anatomy provided health messages and possibly even influence attitudes among its audience. The third chapter will argue that Rhimes used Private Practice to illustrate the different opinions about abortion. At times, she even suggested that people who are anti-abortion can have double standards, or even be hypocritical, when they are confronted with the subject in their personal life. Next to material from the episodes, Carol Hanisch’ essay ‘the Personal is Political’ will be considered. Furthermore, Rhimes uses this chapter to speak up against the controversial ‘partial-birth abortion ban’ of 2003. Historian, Johanna Schoen’s work, Abortion After Roe, will be considered to discuss the politics involved in late-term abortion in the United States.34 Finally, chapter 4 will argue that in Scandal, Rhimes is attempting to break down the stigma that still exists when it comes to abortion. In this chapter, the plotlines will be considered in light of the Washington DC news stories they were inspired by. Rhimes uses Scandal to portray a more tolerant Republican party and she is reversing traditional gender roles to create an unconventional dynamic between her main characters. To answer how Shonda Rhimes portrays abortion in her television series and in what ways these representations relate to recent developments in the U.S. abortion debate, I will focus on how the abortion is portrayed in the episode. I will look at how the decision-making process is portrayed, how the characters deal with a possible abortion, and the opinions that are held by other characters involved in the plotline. Other recurring themes will be how gender is incorporated in discussing abortion and how the writing process behind the episodes took place. Furthermore, I will look at similarities between Rhimes’ narratives and examples or legislation in U.S. society. Finally, I will use these analyses argue that Rhimes has become more bold in representing abortion in her television shows.

34 Johanna Schoen, Abortion After Roe (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2015). 10

Chapter 2: Nobody Says No to Shonda Rhimes Progress in the Outcome of Abortion Plotlines

Introduction

Grey’s Anatomy is a medical drama series based in Seattle, Washington. The show first aired on ABC in 2005 and ever since it was first launched it became somewhat of a cultural phenomenon, often reaching audiences of approximately 20 million viewers, and thus claiming a top spot on the Nielsen ratings.35 Grey’s Anatomy is now in its 13th season and there are no signs of it stopping any time soon. Among other things, Rhimes has been praised for the diversity in the shows’ cast; she claims this is a result of the blind-casting technique she applied to this show. The script for the pilot had no physical descriptions aside from gender.36 Rhimes confirmed: “We really read every color actor for every single part. And…I was lucky because the network was like, great go for it.”37 The show’s ABC website describes Grey’s Anatomy as revolving around a group of doctors dealing with life-or-death situations on a daily basis. They find comfort in one another and together they discover “that neither medicine nor relations can be defined in black and white. Real life only comes in shades of grey.”38 This description illustrates the multi-layered meaning of the show’s name, referring both to the last name of its protagonist, the shades of grey in life, and the name of the hospital. Because the show is set in a hospital, the narratives provide a broad stage to speak about health, relationships, and work in relation to issues of gender, race, class, and sexuality. By showing all this diversity, and at the same time tackling culturally relevant issues of sexism and racism, one could assume that Rhimes is taking a lot of risks. However, this risk does seem to pay off when looking at her viewership and the ratings of the show. In order to gain insight in the motivations behind Rhimes’ choice to portray abortion or a pro-choice agenda in her television shows, I will discuss the progress of these storylines in her first and longest running show Grey’s Anatomy in this chapter. Because of the medical nature

35 Victoria Rideout, “Television as a Health Educator: A Case Study of Grey’s Anatomy,” Kaiser Family Foundation Report (2008): 1. 36 Amy Long, “Diagnosing Drama: Grey’s Anatomy, Blind Casting, and the Politics of Representation,” the Journal of Popular Culture 44(5) (2011): 1067. 37 Ibid, 1067-1068. 38 “About the Show,” ABC, accessed May 15, 2017. http://abc.go.com/shows/greys-anatomy/about-the-show 11 of the series, the writers could have treated the subject in a distant manner without taking a standpoint, however, two of the more in-depth storylines dealing with abortion are related to one of the show’s main characters. To analyze the topic of abortion and how this is portrayed in Grey’s Anatomy, I will first discuss how other television shows were dealing with the topic of abortion at the time Grey’s Anatomy first aired. Secondly, I will discuss the progressive storylines for the show’s main characters when it comes to abortion; in this section I will also discuss the writers’ motives for discussing abortion in certain ways and in what ways Grey’s Anatomy can be labeled as more progressive than other television series dealing with abortion. Furthermore, I will argue that as abortion legislation has become more restrictive, the show has become more explicit in defending women’s reproductive rights. Finally, I will discuss the influence of the show as a health educator and how the portrayal of abortion may result in a change in abortion attitudes among the audience.

2.1 Abortion in Television

2.1.1 Abortion Outcomes in the 2000s

In October 2011, Vulture.com, an entertainment news website linked to New York Magazine, praised Rhimes for finally having the courage to “go through with” an abortion on television; one of the shows’ main characters, Cristina Yang, decided to have an abortion. In several episodes, spread over two seasons, the audience follows Cristina in the process of finding out about the pregnancy, through the process of her decision making, and all the way towards the procedure itself. The article mentions that this storyline was noteworthy because unwanted pregnancies usually end in miscarriages or other ‘solutions’ because television creators do not feel confident enough to speak up about the controversial topic.39 According to the article, Grey’s Anatomy took a much bolder step in portraying abortion by staying true to the character and her wish. However, Rhimes was not always this bold in the show’s plotlines. In previous cases on the same show, she also opted to resolve unwanted pregnancies with alternative solutions.40 In order to determine whether or not the episode portraying the decision to have an abortion and the procedure itself was progressive or brave, I compare the narrative to other

39 Willa Paskin, “A Character on Grey’s Anatomy Actually Had an Abortion on Prime-Time Television Last Night,” Vulture, accessed, March 20, 2017. http://www.vulture.com/2011/09/someone_actually_had_an_aborti.html 40 Ibid. 12 television shows dealing with the topic of abortion at this time. Pop-culture journalist, Rebecca Raber, referred to abortion as ‘TV’s last taboo’ in an article in the Village Voice in 2005. She argued that there was no shortage of unwelcome surprise pregnancies in American television, yet characters rarely went through with having an abortion, unlike their real-life counterparts.41 Raber provided examples from Grey’s Anatomy and its character Cristina’s first pregnancy, which resulted in a miscarriage, and an example from Desperate Housewives where Gabriella Solis, who did not wanted children and only got pregnant because her husband tampered with her birth control pills, eventually miscarried with a dramatic fall from the stairs just after she realized that she did want to become a mother after all.42 Television did not shy away from the dramatic storylines of unwanted pregnancy and the uncertainty and inner struggles of what to do next, however, Raber argued that the word abortion was often not even uttered. In a Sex and the City episode from 2001, Miranda becomes pregnant by an ex-boyfriend, initially she plans on having an abortion but she eventually decides to become a mother. In the episode, the four girlfriends seemingly discuss abortions without judgment; two of the main characters had experience with the procedure themselves. Yet, they never refer to it with the actual name, so even though they openly discuss it, the topic is still stigmatized by not feeling free enough to refer to the procedure with the correct terminology. Raber described the example of Six Feet Under as the only exception when it came to abortion outcomes. In one episode, a teenager ‘nonchalantly’ has an abortion because it is the right decision for her.43 Raber already alluded to the various outcomes that can result from an abortion plotline on television; she argued that when it comes to television “we might as well be living in an era before Roe v. Wade.”44 The number of television abortion plotlines increased steadily after the Roe vs. Wade ruling, but it was not until the 21st century that abortion narratives have increased more expansively. Between 2003 and 2012, the total of abortion plotlines increased with 105%.45 Sisson and Kimport state that 69% of the television depictions of abortion aired on network television (ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS etc.). More importantly, 90% of the depictions were aired during primetime.46 So even if abortion is still a controversial topic in the United States, network television and advertisers are not scared away from profiling the topic in primetime. However, abortion plotlines do not always lead to an actual abortion for the character. Even

41 Rebecca Raber, “TV’s Last Taboo,” the Village Voice (2005): 31. 42 Ibid, 31. 43 Ibid, 32. 44 Ibid, 31. 45 Gretchen Sisson & Katrina Kimport, “Telling Stories About Abortion: Abortion-Related Plots in American Film and Television, 1916-2013,” University of California, San Francisco, December 31, 2013, p. 415. 46 Ibid. 13 though unplanned or unwanted pregnancies are a hot topic for television producers, not many of them have dared to have their characters stick to the decision to terminate a pregnancy. Sisson and Kimport identify several outcomes or solutions to abortion plotlines: unresolved, adoption, pregnancy loss, parenting, and abortion.47 Television producers might decide to tackle the controversial topic in their narratives, but still shy away from taking an actual stance by opting for the character contemplating an abortion to change her mind, or miscarry. Sisson and Kimport have done several studies into characters seeking abortion on American television and between 2005 and 2015, 55% of the women considering an abortion end up obtaining one. 40% of the plotlines result in one of the other possible outcomes like pregnancy loss, adoption, or motherhood. Only 4% of the abortion narratives portray a character pursuing an abortion but encountering too many obstacles on the way that she cannot terminate the pregnancy.48 They show that abortions have been part of movies ever since the early 20th century. Because television was only available from the 1940s abortions were introduced to this medium in a later stage as they were slowly incorporated from the 1960s.49 Aside from Grey’s Anatomy, there was another show tackling gender issues and women’s reproductive rights around the same time. In 2012, HBO first aired a new show about four young women living in New York. Because of the location and topic of the show, Girls was initially expected to become the new Sex and the City. However, the creator of the show, feminist writer and director Lena Dunham, intended to tell a more raw and honest tale. Girls second episode of season one dealt with one of its main characters Jessa and her scheduled abortion. Girls aimed for a more modern approach by having Jessa’s friends throwing her an ‘abortion party’ and using the word abortion 11 times during the episode, almost like they were desensitizing it. However, in the end Jessa got her period and turned out not to be pregnant.50 According to Dunham, the episode coincidentally aired during the time when anti-abortionist Rick Santorum became a powerful force in the Republican primary. But she is not afraid to use her stage to take part in the national debate: “I am glad that we’re exploring that stuff when the debate is most visible.”51 In 2015, Girls went a step further: Mimi, one of the main character’s

47 Ibid, 416. 48 Gretchen Sisson & Katrina Kimport, “Depicting Abortion Access on American Television, 2005-2015,” Feminism & Psychology 27(1) (2017): 59. 49 Gretchen Sisson & Katrina Kimport, “Telling Stories About Abortion: Abortion-Related Plots in American Film and Television, 1916-2013,” University of California, San Francisco, December 31, 2013, p. 415. 50 Lauren Duca and Emma Gray, “‘Girls’ Finally went there with an Abortion Storyline,” the Huffington Post, accessed March 24, 2017. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/22/girls-abortion-storyline_n_6716744.html 51 Jordan Zakarin, “Lena Dunham Gets Real with HBO’s Girls, One Crisis at a Time,” the Hollywood Reporter, accessed March 24, 2017. 14 girlfriend calmly tells her boyfriend she cannot go for a run because she had an abortion the day before. Her boyfriend becomes very angry at this news and asks her if it was a boy or a girl. Mimi replies “It was a ball of cells. It was smaller than a seed pearl. It didn’t have a penis or a vagina.”52 These words challenge a traditional argument about preserving unborn human life often made by anti-abortion activists. The two episodes of Girls illustrate that Dunham portrayed a more explicit approach to discussing abortion on television than previous shows have done. Yet, ending the first abortion episode in a false pregnancy could be explained as a safe solution to avoid the procedure from happening. Rhimes also portrayed different solutions to abortion narratives in Grey’s Anatomy.

2.1.2 Progress in Grey’s Anatomy Abortion Outcomes

In 2005, the first few episodes of season 2 of Grey’s Anatomy revolve around the unwanted and secret pregnancy of Cristina Yang, who had an affair with Preston Burke. Cristina is one of the surgical residents at Seattle Grace Hospital. At this point in the show, the audience has come to know Cristina as a very determined and career-driven young doctor. She does not let emotions get the better of her, and most of all she is fearless when it comes to taking out her competition. When her relationship is ended by doctor Burke, she decides not to inform him about her pregnancy. Cristina does not embody stereotypical feminine traits; her career is the most important thing to her, and there is little room for emotions or feelings. These character traits also play up when she is pregnant; she makes the decision to have an abortion in a very business-like manner. She refers to her affair with doctor Burke as ‘Switzerland’ a place where everything is neutral and no real feelings are involved. Instead of the abortion happening, the plotline took an alternative route. Cristina is forced to operate with doctor Burke after their break-up. In the operating room, they argue because Cristina is acting distracted and does not perform to her normal standard. Cristina collapses and has to be taken out of the operating room. On her way out, she tells her fellow resident, Izzie Stevens, that she is 7 weeks pregnant. A neonatal surgeon later confirms that Cristina is suffering from an ectopic pregnancy and that her fallopian tube burst. The doctors remove Cristina’s left fallopian tube. Doctor Burke is still left in the dark when it comes to the

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/lena-dunhams-girls-explore-unemployment-reproductive-rights- nyc-hbo-308737 52 Lauren Duca and Emma Gray, “‘Girls’ Finally went there with an Abortion Storyline,” the Huffington Post, accessed March 24, 2017. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/22/girls-abortion-storyline_n_6716744.html 15 ectopic pregnancy and the initial plans for an abortion. In the next episode, Cristina’s fellow residents and friends discuss what happened. They all express their concerns about the fact that she has not shown any emotion since she lost the pregnancy and one of her fallopian tubes. One resident claims that ‘not showing weakness’ will make her a great surgeon. This is an explicit statement representing a real-life dilemma; the lack of emotions or feelings result in her co-workers judging Cristina as a person, however, these traits are supposedly what makes her great at her job. While writing this storyline, Rhimes and her co-writers never intended for Cristina to become a parent. In an interview several years after the episode aired, Rhimes stated that it was originally her intention to let Cristina’s pregnancy end in an actual abortion. She supposedly had the storyline all laid out when she got some “strong reactions” from Broadcast Standard and Practices, the network’s department involved in the moral and ethical implications of its programming; even though nobody told her not to do it, she went back to the writing room. Someone then pitched her the idea of the ectopic pregnancy and Cristina collapsing in the OR in front of Preston. Rhimes claims that have Dr. Burke find out this way, and the pregnancy resulting in a medical issue, was more interesting to the story.53 These statements made by Rhimes illustrate several things. First of all, she claims she would personally not have shied away from an abortion plotline and she was not forced to drop the abortion from the storyline. Nevertheless, she dropped her initial plan for Cristina’s abortion. Instead, the outcome of Cristina’s pregnancy is a miscarriage. The change in solution shows that more important than spreading a message about abortion as an important topic in medical health, the development of interesting storylines and relationships on the show are a crucial factor in the process of writing an episode. Leading health communication researchers argue health information is more likely to be attended to when it is delivered through engaging storytelling, often involving characters the audience already ‘knows and cares about’.54 When dealing with the medical topic of abortion, the message may be received better by the audience when they truly know and care about the character experiencing it. This may also play a factor in Rhimes’ decision to let Cristina go through with an abortion in a later series of the show, once her character was more developed and relatable to the audience. In 2014, she admitted to Time Magazine that she

53 Willa Paskin, “Shonda Rhimes on Grey’s Anatomy’s Recent Abortion Story Line,” Vulture, accessed March 5, 2017. http://www.vulture.com/2011/09/shonda_rhimes_talks_about_grey.html 54 A. Singhal et al., Entertainment-education and social change: History, research, and practice (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Earlbaum Associates, 2004). 16 regretted changing her original plans for Cristina’s first pregnancy in 2005.55 She felt she could go through with Cristina’s abortion in 2011: “I felt like we had earned all of the credentials with the audience, the audience knew these characters. The audience loved these characters. The audience stood by these characters.”56 In 2011, in the last episode of season 7, Cristina finds out she is pregnant again. She is married to one of her colleagues at this point and immediately decides to inform him about the pregnancy. Her partner, Owen, cannot hide his joy about the possibility of becoming a father. Cristina is not open to this idea, claiming she does not dislike babies, and therefore does not want to bring a child into the world that is not wanted by its mother. While she promises Owen to think about her options, she eventually decides to schedule an appointment to have an abortion. When she tells Owen about it, he is very angry that he was not part of the decision. In the first episode of season 8, Rhimes decided for Cristina to go through with her abortion instead of opting for a different solution to her unwanted pregnancy. In beginning of the episode, Owen sees Cristina cuddling Meredith’s baby. The audience understands this is a painful moment for him, since Cristina convinced him she is not the maternal kind. Cristina confirms to Meredith that she made an appointment to have an abortion that day at 6:00 PM. Later in the episode, Owen offers to risk his life for a patient, he urges that he should be the one risking his life instead of another doctor who has a wife and a child. By saying this, Owen appears to disregard his own wife and her pregnancy. Maybe this moment reflects his acceptance of the reality that Cristina wants an abortion. In the end of the second episode, Owen comes to terms with Cristina’s decision and offers to go with her to the appointment. The audience sees Cristina in a hospital bed, holding hands with Owen, while the doctor says: “I am going to ask you one last time, are you sure?” Cristina nods yes and turns her head to the side, while the camera pans out. The scene is followed by a scene showing Meredith Grey and her husband holding their child before having to give her back to the adoption agency. The combination of these storylines is quite profound since Cristina argues she would not make a good parent because she does not want to have children, and while Meredith and her husband desire to have a child, the adoption agency has doubts if they are fit to be parents. Telling these two stories in one episode may be part of a larger argument about becoming a parent, and that

55 Laura Stampler, “Why 2014 Should Be the Year We Talk About Abortion on TV: Shonda Rhimes Explains Why It’s so Important,” Time Magazine, accessed April 2, 2017. http://entertainment.time.com/2014/01/23/why-2014-should-be-the-year-we-talk-about-abortion-on-tv/ 56 Ibid. 17 it is not something that starts at conception but is in fact responsibility that people should consciously take on. The progress between the two narratives is extra clear because both storylines deal with an unplanned pregnancy for the same character. While Cristina was in a stable marriage at the time of her second pregnancy, her choice was based on not wanting to become a parent. The decision had nothing to do with outside factors like a stable relationship, job certainty or financial security. By taking these factors out of the equation, the narrative suggests that the decision to have an abortion is a personal one and that there are no outside requirements to whether the decision is justifiable. The viewer is guided to accepting Cristina’s abortion because nobody on the show rejects her choice to end her pregnancy. Even her partner, who wants to become a parent, eventually accepts her choice about terminating the pregnancy. Between 2006 and 2011, the writers of the show all wrote blogs on a website called ‘Grey Matter’ explaining what went into writing the episodes. The blogs stopped before the actual abortion episode in season 8. Debora Cahn, the main writer for this storyline, did write a blog about the season finale of season 7, ‘Unaccompanied Minor’, in which she reflects on Cristina’s pregnancy and her decision to have an abortion:

And so Cristina. Making a terrible decision. Alone. The decision itself is a problem, obviously, but that wasn’t our focus, cause we’d all seen that one on Lifetime. Our focus was how she was making the decision. Where Owen was in the decision. What did it tell us about her marriage. Her partnership. Her ability to include someone else in her life, even at this most devastating time. Ultimately, she couldn’t. We can all slot ourselves into predictable spots on the political spectrum, but none of the bumper stickers prepare us for deciding with someone else. Everything that makes Cristina a great surgeon makes her a terrible partner. And that just sucks.57

Cahn appears to use Lifetime as a generalization of other television networks and shows that have shown other kinds of narratives when it comes to abortion plotlines as she argues that their focus was not on the debate between having an abortion or not, instead, they focused on the complexity of the decision to have an abortion, on a personal and a relationship level. An abortion plotline in a show like Sex and the City is meant to add a level of drama even though

57 Debora Cahn, “Unaccompanied Minor,” Grey’s Anatomy: Grey Matter, accessed March 24, 2017. http://blogs.abc.com 18 the writers never intend for the character to go through with the procedure. As stated by Raber, introducing an abortion narrative can be a way for writers to feel “brave” for explore a “taboo subject” without having to defend their political convictions.58 Cahn claims their motives were different and more focused on the development of the character of Cristina. She describes a political spectrum with all kinds of possible attitudes towards abortion. In her description of how Cristina made the decision to terminate her pregnancy, Cahn is critical of Cristina as a partner. She appears to argue that Cristina is a terrible partner because she did not include Owen in her decision to have an abortion. The narrative was not merely created to push a pro- choice agenda, but to evaluate Cristina’s shortcomings, abilities and possible growth on a personal level. So even if the show argues that the decision to have an abortion or not is a personal one, this writer is arguing that the woman, in this case Cristina, should include her partner.

2.1.3 U.S. Politics and the Continuing Fight to Limit Abortion Rights

Over the progress of Grey’s Anatomy, Rhimes has become more bold in defending women’s reproductive rights, focusing on a woman’s right to choose. According to the Guttmacher Institute, 195 state-level abortion restrictions were adopted between 2000 and 2005.59 All these limitations to the right to have an abortion make it more difficult for women to have access to safe and affordable abortions. The Guttmacher Institute stated in a policy report in 2006 that 52 of the 195 state-level abortion limitations existing at that time were enacted in 2005.60 Since the developments around the state-level limitations on abortions are so visible in the years between 2000 and 2005, one could assume that anyone arguing for a pro-abortion message would react to these new restrictions. However, since Rhimes did not speak publicly about abortion and a woman’s right to choose in this period, it would be too presumptuous to claim that she decided on the abortion narrative for one of her main characters to push for a pro- choice agenda. In 2012, the Guttmacher Institute published numbers of a new record number of 1,100 reproductive health and rights-related provisions in 2011.

58 Rebecca Raber, “TV’s Last Taboo,” the Village Voice (2005): 33. 59 Rebecca Wind, “States Enacted 52 Laws Restricting Abortion in 2005: Beyond Threats to Roe v. Wade, Women Already Face Significant Barriers to Abortion,” the Guttmacher Institute, accessed March 24, 2017. https://www.guttmacher.org/news-release/2006/states-enacted-52-laws-restricting-abortion-2005 60 Ibid. 19

In 2010, the number of new restrictions in all 50 states was 950.61 Furthermore, in 2010, only 26% of the new provisions involved restricting abortion, this percentage increased to 68% of the 2011 provisions.62 Even though, these numbers were not published until after the 2011 episode of Grey’s Anatomy, in which Cristina had an abortion. The timing of the episode turned out to be crucial with all the new restrictions that were implemented during 2011.

2.2 The Health Educating Role of Grey’s Anatomy

Entertainment television plays an important role in most Americans daily routines and therefore has a great influence as information provider. Because of great international success in providing public information on topics like HIV, domestic violence, and reproductive health, public health practitioners have sought to introduce Entertainment-education in the United States as well.63 Vicki Beck, who researches health messages in television, claims that television shows are an important, often primary, source of health information.64 For this reason, it is important that shows like Grey’s Anatomy provide accurate information about health issues. The power of television is so uniquely great because television, especially prime- time programs on the major networks like Grey’s Anatomy, have an enormous reach. Furthermore, as previously mentioned, health information provided through engaging storytelling is more likely to be attended to than through traditional sources.65 There have been several studies into health messages on entertainment television, and how this information was received and remembered by the audience. An episode of Friends, in which one of the characters became pregnant despite the use of a condom, turned out to provide healthy sex education about condom use and possible risks of becoming pregnant.66 Usually, television’s

61 “States Enact Record Number of Abortion Restrictions in 2011,” the Guttmacher Institute, accessed June 13, 2017. https://www.guttmacher.org/article/2012/01/states-enact-record-number-abortion-restrictions-2011 62 Ibid. 63 H.J. Hether et al. “Entertainment-Education in a Media-Saturated Environment: Examining the Impact of Single and Multiple Exposure to Breast Cancer Storylines on Two Popular Medical Dramas,” Journal of Health Communication (2008): 809. 64 Vicki Beck, “Working with Daytime and Prime-Time Television Shows in the United States to Promote Health,” In Entertainment-Education and Social Change: History, Research, and Practice, ed. A. Singhal, M.J. Cody et al. (Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum Associates, 2004), 207-224. 65 A. Singhal et al., Entertainment-education and social change: History, research, and practice, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Earlbaum Associates, 2004. 66 Rebecca L. Collins et al. “Entertainment Television as a Healthy Sex Educator: the Impact of Condom- Efficacy Information in an Episode of Friends,” Pediatrics 112(5) (2003): 1115. 20 influence is cumulative because of repeated exposure to certain themes.67 Research into ER and Grey’s Anatomy has shown that the impact of two unrelated breast cancer storylines was strongest among viewers who watched both storylines instead of either one individually. This suggests an additive effect in health information across storylines and television shows.68 Because of Grey’s Anatomy’s immense popularity, the show has the potential to educate people through its storylines. In a collaborative study between the Kaiser Family Foundation and the USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center’s Hollywood, Health & Society, a list of the top 10 scripted prime time shows was provided for the years 2004, 2005, and 2006. The study showed rankings for three separate audience groups described as a general audience (including all ethnicities in equal proportions to their representation in the population), an African American audience, and a Hispanic audience.69 For the years 2004 and 2005 the number one show for the general audience often was different from the number one show for the African American or the Hispanic audiences. For example, in 2004 Friends was the number one ranked show for the general audience and the Hispanic audience, while Girlfriends was the number one show for the African American audience. In 2005, the African American and Hispanic audience ranked the Simpsons as their number one show, while Desperate housewives was the highest ranked show among the general audience. The ranking of 2006 shows that the newcomer Grey’s Anatomy was instantly popular; as a newcomer in the top 10 ranking, it became the number one ranked show for all three audiences.70 These rankings lead to the conclusion that Grey’s Anatomy was not only an immediate success, it also illustrates that the show is a culturally versatile show that speaks to audiences from all kinds of backgrounds. Because of Grey’s Anatomy’s broad reach, the writers have access to a powerful tool in providing health education. The Kaiser Family Foundation used an episode of Grey’s Anatomy from season 4 in their research on television’s role as a health educator. The foundation selected this topic for their research together with Meg Marinis, the director of medical research on the show. The research was done among regular viewers of the show, who were asked about the topic one week before the episode aired, one week after the episode, and

67 Sheila T. Murphy, Heather J. Hether, and Victoria Rideout, “How Healthy is Prime Time? An Analysis of Health Content in Popular Prime Time Television Programs,” Report by The Kaiser Family Foundation and The USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center’s Hollywood, Health & Society (2008): 2. 68 H.J. Hether et al. “Entertainment-Education in a Media-Saturated Environment: Examining the Impact of Single and Multiple Exposure to Breast Cancer Storylines on Two Popular Medical Dramas,” Journal of Health Communication (2008): 816. 69 Sheila T. Murphy, Heather J. Hether, and Victoria Rideout, “How Healthy is Prime Time? An Analysis of Health Content in Popular Prime Time Television Programs,” Report by The Kaiser Family Foundation and The USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center’s Hollywood, Health & Society (2008): 4. 70 Ibid. 21 again six weeks after the episode.71 The episode analyzed in the research dealt with a couple who wanted to have an abortion because the pregnant woman had been diagnosed with HIV. The couple blame their doctor, Izzie Stevens, for pushing an anti-abortion agenda when she advises them about their options aside from abortion. Eventually, doctor Stevens is able to provide sufficient information about the couple’s chances of having a healthy baby so they decide against having the abortion. The show influenced the medical knowledge of its audience on the possible risks for an HIV infected women to carry a child full term. The medical knowledge tested in the research was the ‘2% chance an HIV-positive woman would transfer the virus to her unborn baby when receiving the right treatment during her pregnancy’. Before the episode aired, only 15% of the audience was aware that there was a high chance that a baby would be born without HIV. After the episode aired 61% of the audience remembered that there is more than a 90% chance that an HIV-positive woman can have a healthy baby and 17% of the respondents specifically remembered that it was a 98% chance. Six weeks after the episode aired, 45% of the audience still remembered that there was more than a 90% chance of the baby not being infected with HIV; even though, the number of people who remembered dropped, it is still 30% higher than it was before seeing the episode.72 The audience was also asked to react to the following statement: “It is irresponsible for a woman who knows she is HIV positive to have a baby.” When looking at the male demographic who strongly agree with this statement in comparison to the female demographic there is quite a difference in their reactions after the episode aired. Before the episode aired, 59% of the male audience agreed that it is irresponsible; this percentage dropped to 48% one week after the episode. For the female audience 62% thought it was irresponsible before the episode aired; this percentage dropped to 29% after the episode aired.73 The medical information provided on the episode had more influence on women. After seeing the episode, women were less inclined to mark an HIV-positive woman as irresponsible for having a baby. These results could be interesting to consider when discussing abortion on television. If the information is presented in a certain way, the female audience could be less inclined to judge women who have an abortion. Since the health information about HIV positive women and pregnancy resulted in a change in opinion among the female audience, the way in which Cristina’s abortion was presented may also have influenced the audience. Cahn

71 Victoria Rideout, “Television as a Health Educator: A Case Study of Grey’s Anatomy,” Kaiser Family Foundation Report (2008): 2. 72 Ibid. 73 Ibid, 5. 22 argued that the focus of the writers was on how she was making her decision instead of if she would have an abortion. In conclusion, in Grey’s Anatomy, Rhimes has illustrated that abortion can be discussed in a different manner than other television shows like Desperate Housewives and Sex and the City had done before her. Even though these shows also focused on female lead characters, abortion narratives often portrayed women who were contemplating the procedure before the writers of the show decided to resolve the unplanned pregnancy in another way. Rhimes made a similar choice for one of her characters in 2005 by ending the pregnancy with a medical emergency – the ectopic pregnancy led to her fallopian tube to burst. However, in 2011 she decided for the same character to go through with the planned abortion in the episode. By doing this, she has made a bolder claim about a character having a legal abortion without regretting it. A medical show like Grey’s Anatomy can be a powerful tool to spread health messages to an audience. Creating a narrative about abortion procedures may be a useful tool to spread a pro-choice message.

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Chapter 3: Take a Stance How Abortion Politics Become Personal in Private Practice

Introduction

In 2008, ABC Network began broadcasting Private Practice, as a spin-off series of Grey’s Anatomy. The show focused on former Grey’s Anatomy character doctor Addison Montgomery, an obstetrician gynecologist specialized in neo-natal surgery, who decided to move to California to join her friends Sam and Naomi Bennett at Oceanside Wellness Group. The show ran from 2007 until 2013 and was produced by ABC Studios, Shondaland, and the Mark Gordon Company.74 The wellness center offers fertility treatments, psychological care, internal medicine, and pediatric care. In the first episode, one of the main characters describes Oceanside as a small-town practice providing personal health care even though the practice is located in a big city.75 Because the practice is setup this way, the relation between the doctors and their patients is often very personal. Consequently, at times this results in the doctors voicing their personal attitudes about and towards their patients. The show offers a multi- facetted view of women’s reproductive issues because the practice does not only deal with fertility treatments, pediatric care and neo-natal care, at times it also confronts the termination of pregnancies. In this chapter I will argue that Private Practice was set-up in a way that allowed for Rhimes and her co-writers to discuss abortion in a more personal and opinionated way than she did in Grey’s Anatomy. During the second feminist wave in the 1960s, feminist activist Carol Hanisch, a prominent figure in the Women’s Liberation Movement, introduced the slogan ‘the personal is political.’76 By showing abortion narratives in an intimate and personal way, Private Practice shows why abortion rights are important despite political opinions and because of personal circumstances. I will argue that because the show is situated in Oceanside Wellness Group, a small family practice that mainly focuses on fertility treatments, neo-natal, and pediatric care, it offers the producers a chance to show the personal opinions that surround abortion. In Private Practice, Rhimes shows her characters’ personal opinions about abortion,

74 Private Practice, the International Movie Database, accessed May 18, 2017. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0972412/?ref_=ttep_ep_tt 75 “In Which We Meet Addison, Nice Girl from Somewhere Else.” Private Practice, Prod. Shondaland, the Mark Gordon Company and ABC Studios (2010). 76 Carol Hanisch, “the Personal is Political,” Notes from the Second Year: Women’s Liberation (New York, 1970), 76. 25 thus creating a debate between characters who are pro-choice and those who are anti-abortion. In Grey’s Anatomy, the audience witnessed Cristina and what she experienced in deciding to terminate her pregnancy, but the legality of the procedure was never challenged by any of the characters. Rhimes explicitly defends women’s reproductive rights by addressing late-term abortion. In this episode, the writers challenge the political rhetoric used by anti-abortion activists. Finally, I will argue that the people behind Shondaland television series are arguing a pro-choice agenda and through the storylines and casting make a deliberate political statement in support of women’s reproductive rights. In fact, Shondaland often hires the same actors for their television shows, many of whom have spoken out publicly in support of women’s reproductive rights and Planned Parenthood.

3.1 The Personal Is Political

3.1.1 Personal Politics and the Abortion Debate

In a 1969 essay, feminist activist Carol Hanisch, a prominent figure in the Women’s Liberation Movement, discussed why personal issues of reproductive rights, childcare, household labor and other ‘personal’ affairs were of political importance. She argued that the word “therapy” is often misplaced in political debates, and that women are “messed over” instead of “messed up”. This distinction places the blame outside of the nature of women but instead on the patriarchal society. Hanisch said that in the female activist groups, questions are asked and answered from personal experience and that these groups are a form of political action. She explained that the groups she participated in did not offer any personal solutions to the problems women faced, instead, they illustrated that political solutions are required, to create collective solutions to these collective problems.77 ‘The personal is political’ attempts to blur the boundary between the public and the private sphere. In order to make women less subservient to men, or remove the patriarchy, political change in the form of legislation like Roe v. Wade is necessary in order to relieve women of the personal issues that hold them back. In research into the abortion attitudes among American students, Sahar and Karasawa discovered that symbolic predispositions have a great amount of influence on views of abortion in the United States.78 Sahar and Karasawa argue that ‘The personal is political’ captures the

77 Carol Hanisch, “the Personal is Political,” Notes from the Second Year: Women’s Liberation (New York, 1970), 76. 78 Gail Sahar & Kaori Karasawa, “Is the Personal Always Political? A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Abortion Attitudes,” Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 27(4) (2005): 285. 26 essence of the abortion debate in the United States because it is difficult to understand a deeply personal issue like abortion because it is so politically charged.79 In the United States, religion is linked negatively to abortion approval, yet, conservatism has a greater influence on the other variables like responsibility, blame, abortion approval, and government help.80 The research concludes that American participants are ideological in their opinions on abortion. The findings support the notion that abortion is a symbolic issue in the United States and it partly provides an explanation to why the issue is so polarized there.81 The importance of symbolism to the American abortion debate suggests that in the United States, the personal is indeed political.

3.1.2 Politics at Oceanside Wellness

Oceanside Wellness Group was founded on traditional family values and one of its main purposes is to help people who have difficulty conceiving naturally with fertility treatments. The clinic’s founders are doctor Naomi Bennett, a reproductive endocrinologist and fertility specialist, and her ex-husband doctor Sam Bennett who is an attending cardiothoracic surgeon and an attending internist. Sam is also known as ‘doctor feelgood’ because of his book ‘Body Language: The Mind-Body connection’.82 Sam and Naomi work together with psychiatrist Violet Turner, pediatrician Cooper Freedman, and Pete Wilder who is specialized in alternative medicine, critical care, and infectious diseases. The practice aims to be a small family practice providing all-round care to families; in one episode, Oceanside uses a commercial ad to emphasize they want to provide care “from our family to yours.”83 The family values of Oceanside are illustrated through the religious values of its founders: Sam and Naomi Bennett are Catholic, and Naomi especially appears to be conflicted when it comes to her divorce and how this can possibly fit into her religion. Another important part of the small family practice is the fertility treatments the clinic provides. Right from the first few episodes it becomes clear that a lot of the staff’s work focuses on fertility and reproductive care as well as providing help to couples with relationship or sexual problems. Because the practice is so small, all doctors appear to be involved in each other’s cases. This may be because they require each other’s expertise in a case, but it can also be that a medical case is discussed over a coffee break

79 Ibid. 80 Ibid, 291. 81 Ibid. 82 “Sam Bennett,” Grey’s Anatomy Wikia, accessed May 18, 2017. http://greysanatomy.wikia.com/wiki/Sam_Bennett 83 ‘A Family Thing,’ Private Practice, Prod. Shondaland, the Mark Gordon Company and ABC Studios (2008). 27 between colleagues. Aside from the doctors helping each other with their expertise and providing advice as colleagues, the practice is so small-staffed and personal that it appears all doctors have shared patients over the years and seen many of the patients grow up and go through different stages in life. Furthermore, the doctors are more closely involved in deciding what ways they want to treat their patients and where they draw the line in meeting the needs of patients than in the large hospital portrayed in Grey’s Anatomy. Abortion is first introduced to the show in episode 8 of the second season in 2008. Pete, one of the practice’s doctors, has a girlfriend who plans on renting some space in the practice to treat her own patients. When the first patient arrives, she announces to Oceanside’s nurse and midwife Dell that she scheduled a ‘termination’. Dell replies: “an abortion? That must be a mistake, we don’t do those.” Following this moment, Dell immediately goes to the kitchen to find his colleagues to express his shock over the fact that the new pro-bono doctor Meg is providing abortions. Providing abortions to patients without charging them could be extremely helpful for low income women who seek to terminate their pregnancy. The Kaiser Family Fund claims that of the 14.1 million women enrolled in Medicaid in 2016, 52% resides in states that restrict abortion coverage by federal funds.84 The male doctors either express that they will not act on this news, or that they are for a woman’s right to choose, but do have issues with the fact that this decision was made without discussing it first, especially because the practice treats so many expecting mothers and newborns. Addison’s reaction to the news is different: “And?”85 When her question is answered with silence, Addison continues by saying: “Oh, you men have a problem with this?”86 By asking this question she makes the pro-choice v. anti- abortion debate a gendered discussion in the practice. When Naomi enters the kitchen, she reacts with shock to the suggestion that women who come in for abortions should be treated. Meg also joins in on the conversation, and at this point Addison asks everybody “without a vagina” to leave the room.87 By doing this, Addison suggests that abortion should only be discussed by women. Addison tries to convince Naomi by arguing that, just like fertility treatments, abortions are legal in the United States. Meg asks Naomi if she is against choice

84 Alina Salganicoff, “Coverage for Abortion Services in Medicaid, Marketplace Plans and Private Plans,” the Kaiser Family Foundation, accessed June 14, 2017. http://www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/issue-brief/coverage-for-abortion-services-in-medicaid-marketplace- plans-and-private-plans/ 85 “Crime and Punishment,” Private Practice, Prod. Shondaland, the Mark Gordon Company and ABC Studios (2008). 86 Ibid. 87 Ibid. 28 and Naomi answers that she will not discuss Roe v. Wade with her, but that she feels that there is no place for abortions in the clinic she started. Even though Addison is trying to exclude her male co-workers from the discussion about the possibility of providing abortions at Oceanside, in reality the sex of an individual is often less of a determining factor in how they view the right to have an abortion than other factors, such as religion for example.88 In a Gallup report from 2010 on the percentage of people who feel abortion should be legal under all circumstances, legal under certain circumstances, or illegal under all circumstances, the numbers show that between 1975 and 2010, the percentage of men and women within each of these three views on abortion are quite similar. The report concludes that education level is more important in predicting views of abortion than sex. What the scene in Private Practice illustrates is that hesitancy in discussing abortion can be misread or assigned to a factor like sex, even though in reality this may not have anything to do with it. Because the male co-workers do not voice their opinion in a more outspoken manner, and because Addison sends them off with a comment about not having “vagina’s” the audience could conclude that abortion attitudes are only important when they are voiced by women. When Violet, Naomi, and Addison are having dinner later that night, and they discuss all the work-related gossip, the topic of Meg doing abortions at Oceanside comes up again. Naomi asks Violet if she thinks it is ridiculous that Meg plans on providing abortions, and Violet explains that she feels that is ridiculous that people would have a problem with this. Naomi acts like she is in the hot seat now and must defend herself. She explains that her problems with abortion are related to her profession, because she witnesses how desperate some women are to have a child but cannot conceive naturally. Violet makes the discussion more personal by explaining that she wished she had known a doctor like Meg in a practice like Oceanside when she needed an abortion. She continues by telling Naomi that she had two abortions, explaining that she had a “misspent youth” and that she made some mistakes. When Naomi says that Violet does not have to explain her motivations, Violet answers that she wants to and that she is not ashamed of her past. At this point, Addison chimes in by saying that she was ashamed and scared when she had her abortion, saying that she had felt those things that no woman should feel when making a decision like this. Naomi attempts to defend her stance by explaining that she believes life starts at conception, and that she simply believes what she

88 Lydia Saad, “Public Opinion About Abortion -- An In-Depth Review,” Gallup, accessed March 24, 2017. http://www.gallup.com/poll/9904/public-opinion-about-abortion-indepth-review.aspx 29 believes. The scene offers the audience different opinions when it comes to abortion, but it also offers an insight in what can go on behind this kind of decision. Even though their opinions are so different, the characters are shown discussing it together. Because the topic is so personal for many people, either because of their own experience like Addison and Violet, or because of religion and profession as in Naomi’s case, it is very difficult to find a mutual consensus. Finally, almost everybody in the clinic agrees that Meg should be able to help her patients by providing abortions among other treatments. In the final scene, Naomi has stopped fighting against Meg and her co-workers, she does express her disbelief and shock that an abortion was provided in the practice she had started: “Oceanside Wellness performs its first abortion. Wonderful.” Near the end of the episode, Naomi tells her colleague Pete that “a baby died today.”89

3.1.3 Double Standards

In episode 12 of season 3, which first aired in 2010, Naomi is confronted with a personal dilemma when her 15-year-old daughter announces she is pregnant. Naomi has always argued that she does not support abortion, because she believes life begins at conception. Now that it is her own daughter who is pregnant, she goes against her personal beliefs because the conviction that her daughter should not become a mother is stronger. After the initial shock, Naomi goes back to the room where her daughter is waiting and grabs her by her arm, drags her to Addison’s office and says: “I need you to give Maya an abortion.”90 Maya tells her mother she does not want to have an abortion and Naomi consequently reacts by slapping her daughter. In the following scene, the audience witnesses a conflicted Naomi, who is shocked that she hit her child. Violet and Addison react with compassion because of the difficulty of the situation and Naomi explains her indignation when her daughter refused the termination. The three colleagues had previously discussed abortion, and the fact that Naomi is against the procedure, in season 2. Addison now argues that it is not acceptable for anyone to order a woman to have an abortion, while Violet expresses her surprise in Naomi changing her opinion on abortion in this particular situation. Naomi claims she will find another doctor to do the procedure if Addison refuses to help her.

89 “Crime and Punishment,” Private Practice, Prod. Shondaland, the Mark Gordon Company and ABC Studios (2008). 90 “Best Laid Plans,” Private Practice, Prod. Shondaland, the Mark Gordon Company and ABC Studios (2010). 30

The scene offers the audience insight into the double standards that may occur in dealing with the topic of abortion; as Addison attempts to convince Naomi that she will hate herself for forcing this decision upon her daughter, Naomi redirects these comments by asking: “do you hate yourself for your abortions?”91 By using this personal information she is trying to convince herself that she is right in this situation. However, this false rhetoric merely illustrates that there is no universal reason or situation in which abortions should be condoned or not. Furthermore, research has shown that women who were denied an abortion often had more regret than those who obtained an abortion.92 This narrative illustrates the difficulty to keep rational opinions and emotions separate when it comes to your personal life. Maya’s unplanned pregnancy also portrays a gendered difference in dealing with abortion between men and women. Where the show portrays Naomi as reacting overemotionally, making drastic decisions for her daughter, Maya’s father, Sam, has a more internal struggle with the situation. Cooper tells Pete, “Maya is pregnant, Sam needs to drink. You in?”93 With this statement, the show risks falling into a gender stereotype by portraying a patriarchal society where the mother is responsible for what happens to the children, while the father drowns his sorrows in a bar. In the show, Cooper, Pete, and Sam do discuss the situation. Pete asks if Sam wants his daughter to have an abortion and Sam answers “that’s the point, I’m a guy it’s not my choice.”94 He continues to express his wish for her to not be pregnant in the first place and for her to live in a world of chastity belts and convents, and concludes that he probably does want her to have an abortion even though it is not his choice to make. This last argument fits well in a pro-choice standpoint because Sam recognizes that the choice lies with his daughter. Rhimes illustrates that part of Naomi’s struggle is related to her religion. When Sam confronts Naomi about her reaction and how he feels they should have handled the situation, Naomi is seen sitting at her desk holding a rosary while praying. Finally, Maya comes in and tells her mother she will have the abortion. After this, the camera focuses on Naomi’s serious face and then to the rosary in her hands. When Naomi apologizes to Sam for how she handled the situation, she tells him that she believes she is going to hell for forcing her daughter to have an abortion but that she does not regret it. According to Sahar and Karasawa, people who, like

91 Ibid. 92 “One Week Later, Women Denied an Abortion Feel More Regret and Less Relief than Those Who Have one,” the Guttmacher Institute, accessed March 24, 2017. https://www.guttmacher.org/news-release/2013/one-week-later-women-denied- abortion-feel-more-regret-and- less-relief-those-who 93 “Best Laid Plans,” Private Practice, Prod. Shondaland, the Mark Gordon Company and ABC Studios (2010) 94 Ibid. 31

Naomi, hold on to absolute moral values, perceive the pregnant woman as more responsible for the situation she is in, and they indicate more blame and anger than those with flexible moral views.95 In the episode, Naomi wants her daughter to have an abortion but also cannot let go of the feelings of anger and judgment towards Maya. Maya explains that she was raised with the idea that abortion is murder. First she decides to have an abortion to please her parents. However, she later changes her mind and decides to keep her pregnancy. In the United States, it is up to the woman to decide about her pregnancy until the 24th week. However, 37 states require parental involvement in a minor’s decision to have an abortion.96 This episode turns the table by showing a minor who decides not to have an abortion against her parents’ wishes. The episode does not only illustrate Naomi’s double standards when it comes to abortion. It also illustrates a double standard in U.S. abortion legislation, if a minor does not need parental consent to carry a pregnancy to term why would she be required to get consent for deciding to terminate a pregnancy? By telling the story in this way, Rhimes and her co-writers again argue that, whatever the decision may be, it is up to the woman to decide what happens to her body.

3.2 Portraying Late-Term Abortion

3.2.1 Late-Term Abortion and the Politics of Reproductive Rights

Most abortions in the United States are performed in the first trimester of the pregnancy but in certain circumstances a patient might require an abortion after 14 weeks, although the Roe v. Wade decision held that states can place restrictions on abortion based on gestational age.97 In some states these restrictions start at the second trimester, in other states they begin at 20 or 24 weeks of pregnancy. Some state laws prohibit late-term abortions except in cases of life or health endangerment. These cases often involve a gestational age of 20 weeks or viability of the fetus.98 The surgical technique commonly used for abortion is known as dilation and extraction, which can be performed safely up until the 36th week of a pregnancy.99 However,

95 Gail Sahar & Kaori Karasawa, “Is the Personal Always Political? A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Abortion Attitudes,” Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 27(4) (2005): 291. 96 “Parental Involvement in Minors’ Abortions,” the Guttmacher Institute, accessed April 1, 2017. https://www.guttmacher.org/state-policy/explore/parental-involvement-minors-abortions 97 Laura Kacere, ‘The Truth Behind Late-Term Abortions,’ Everyday Feminism, accessed April 28, 2017. http://everydayfeminism.com/2014/06/truth-late-term-abortions/ 98 “An Overview of Abortion Laws,” the Guttmacher Institute, accessed June 14, 2017. https://www.guttmacher.org/state-policy/explore/overview-abortion-laws 99 Jennifer Gunter, “Term and Partial Birth Abortions: The Mythical Arch-Nemeses of the Anit-Choice Movement,” the Huffington Post, accessed May 1, 2017. 32 such late-term abortions occur far less frequently than abortion in the first 12 or 14 weeks of the pregnancy. In January 2017, 9% of abortions were obtained after the first trimester and only a little over 1% of abortions in the United States were performed at 21 weeks or later.100 Anti-abortion activists have claimed that late-term abortion procedures are used as an extreme form of birth control to “kill healthy babies that pose no danger or threat to their mother.”101 However, women who seek later abortions usually do so because of delays preventing an earlier termination or due to the late discovery of severe fetal abnormalities or health risks of carrying the pregnancy to term. Delays may be caused by the difficulty of finding a provider, or acquiring the necessary funds for the procedure and travel expenses. For women who are already in the second or third trimester, the hurdles to overcome in order to get an abortion are even greater than for women in the first trimester. In June 1995, Representative Charles Canady introduced the ‘Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act.’102 The act bans a medical procedure that doctors use to perform abortions after about 12 weeks of pregnancy.103 The term ‘partial birth abortion’ is a politicized term coined by anti- abortion activists to suggest that the late term procedure is used in the last stages of a pregnancy, right before birth. The term therefore becomes part of a symbolic battle against abortion rights, in a similar way that replacing the term “fetus” with “baby” or “infant”.104 The symbolism is also used when it comes to visual campaigns against late-term abortion. Gunter argues that images of the procedure are graphic, but so are all surgical images.105 The ‘Partial Birth Abortion Ban’ bill prohibited and criminalized the dilatation and extraction after what date in the preganancy?.106 The legislation attempted to change the U.S. Criminal Code in such a way that would make any abortion that would “deliberately and intentionally deliver in to the vagina a living fetus, or a substantial portion thereof, for the purpose of performing a procedure http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/term-and-partial-birth-abortions-the-mythical-arch-nemeses-of-the-anti- choice-movement_us_580d4427e4b02444efa3f33a 100 “Later Abortion,” the Guttmacher Institute, accessed April 10, 2017. https://www.guttmacher.org/evidence-you-can-use/later-abortion 101 “Abortion Methods Described: Plus, Misleading Claims about Abortion,” Pro-Life, accessed April 18, 2017. www.prolife.com/abormeth.html 102 Johanna Schoen, Abortion After Roe (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2015), 228. 103 “Two Abortion Cases,” the New York Times, accessed May 31, 2017 .http://www.nytimes.com/ref/washington/scotuscases_ABORTION.html 104 David A. Grimes, “6 Things to Understand when Talking about Abortion,” the Huffington Post, accessed April 20, 2017. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-a-grimes/abortion-terminology-things-to-understand_b_6175430.html 105 Jennifer Gunter, “Term and Partial Birth Abortions: The Mythical Arch-Nemeses of the Anit-Choice Movement,” the Huffington Post, accessed May 1, 2017. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/term-and-partial-birth-abortions-the-mythical-arch-nemeses-of-the-anti- choice-movement_us_580d4427e4b02444efa3f33a 106 Janet E. Gans, PhD, Harry S. Jonas, MD, and Daniel L. Seckinger, MD, “Late-Term Abortion,” American Medical Association, 280(8) (1998): 724. 33 the physician knows will kill the fetus, and kills the fetus,”107 a federal crime unless the procedure was performed to save the life of the woman and there were no other alternative methods available. According to National Public Radio, the term was first coined by the National Right to Life Committee in 1995.108 Docter Jennifer Gunter, OB/GYN and writer for the Huffington Post, argues that the term is incorrect, as “using the term ‘partial-birth abortion’ is like saying ‘cutting out half the guts’ when you really mean a hemicolectomy. The former is a very imprecise and poor description for the latter.”109 This comparison is just as oversimplified as the term ‘partial-birth abortion’ itself. This illustrates how using symbolic language when it comes to complicated medical procedures may influence public opinion. The scare tactics involved with using the controversial term for a medical procedure have undoubtedly influenced the way people view late-term abortion and whether it should be legal in the United States. A 2013 Gallup poll illustrates that a majority of U.S. citizens (61%) believed abortion should be legal in the first three months of a pregnancy, but these percentages dropped substantially when asked about the legality of later-term abortions. Only 14% of U.S. citizens believe abortion should be legal in the last three months of the pregnancy.110 There is some evidence that the introduction of the term ‘partial-birth abortion’ and the discussion that followed resulted in a shift in public opinion on abortion; at the same time that Gallup stated that the public opposed ‘partial-birth abortion,’ it also reported a drop in the number of Americans holding the view that abortion should be legal “under any circumstances.” Since the 1990s, roughly one third of U.S. citizens held liberal views of abortion legality. This group dropped to roughly one-quarter in 1996, and the number has remained practically the same since then.111 Laura Kacere, a writer at everydayfeminism.com, argues that the political and cultural misinformation about later-term abortions have resulted in fear and stigma surrounding

107 Ibid. 108 Julie Rovner, “Partial-Birth Abortion: Seperating Fact from Spin,” National Public Radio, accessed April 18, 2017. http://www.npr.org/2006/02/21/5168163/partial-birth-abortion-separating-fact-from-spin 109 Jennifer Gunter, “Term and Partial Birth Abortions: The Mythical Arch-Nemeses of the Anti-Choice Movement,” the Huffington Post, accessed May 1, 2017. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/term-and-partial-birth-abortions-the-mythical-arch-nemeses-of-the-anti- choice-movement_us_580d4427e4b02444efa3f33a 110 Lydia Saad, “Majority of Americans Still Support Roe v. Wade Decision,” Gallup, accessed April 18, 2017. http://www.gallup.com/poll/160058/majority-americans-support-roe-wade-decision.aspx 111 Lydia Saad, “Public Opinion about Abortion: An In-Depth Review,” Gallup, accessed March 24, 2017. http://www.gallup.com/poll/9904/public-opinion-about-abortion-indepth-review.aspx 34 the subject. She concludes that as a result, even many people who identify as pro-choice are distancing themselves from late-term abortions, and sometimes even challenge their legality.112

3.2.2 Attacking the Ban on Late-Term Abortion

Private Practice started during the Gonzalez v. Carhart case in the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2007, Gonzalez v. Carhart upheld the ‘Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act’ of 2003.113 Before this ruling, two federal appeals courts had declared that the federal Partial Birth Abortion Act was unconstitutional. In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court appealed those earlier rulings. The law prohibits late-term abortion, except when the woman’s life is in danger, however, it does not contain an exception to protect the woman’s health. According to historian Johanna Schoen, Gonzalez v. Carhart provided the logical completion of over three decades of anti-abortion activism.114 In these three decades, anti-abortion activists have attempted to redefine the embryo or fetus as a baby or an infant and pregnancy termination as murder. Schoen also argues that ever since the ‘partial-birth abortion’ terminology was first introduced in the 1990s, there was a need for a new kind of pro-choice rhetoric to safeguard women’s reproductive rights in the form of abortion care.115 By discussing late-term abortion as a legal medical procedure and part of a women’s right to choose, Rhimes may be able to contribute to a cohesive response to anti-abortion rhetoric. After several abortion narratives on the show, Rhimes introduced a late-term abortion plotline to Oceanside in 2011. The episode deals with a patient named Patty who comes in with vague symptoms. After a few examinations, Addison discovers that something went wrong with an attempted abortion Patty had several months before, and that she is still pregnant. The patient desires to have the procedure again even though her gestational age is now past the first trimester. Addison agrees to help Patty even though she tells Naomi: “I hate what I’m about to do, but I support Patty’s right to choose. It is not enough just to have an opinion, because in a nation of over 300 million people, there are only 1,700 abortion providers. And I am one of them.”116 As stated by the Guttmacher Institute, there were 788 abortion clinics and 1671

112 Laura Kacere, “The Truth Behind Late-Term Abortions,” Everyday Feminism, accessed April 28, 2017. http://everydayfeminism.com/2014/06/truth-late-term-abortions/ 113 Johanna Schoen, Abortion After Roe (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2015), 237. After the bill was originally introduced, both houses passed the bill in 1995 and 1997. Although President Clinton vetoed the bill twice, President Bush signed it into law in 2003. 114 Ibid, 20. 115 Ibid, 248. 116 “God Bless the Child,” Private Practice, Prod. Shondaland, the Mark Gordon Company and ABC Studios (2011). 35 abortion providers in the United States in 2014.117 These numbers support Addison’s claim and they also illustrate a decrease between 2011 and 2014. The number of clinics dropped by 51 and the number of providers dropped by 49.118 By using this information as part of her argument in favor of providing the late-term abortion, Addison proves that personal opinions and politics go hand in hand when it comes to abortion. Even though, she is pro-choice, she has personal difficulty with the late-term procedure. However, she acknowledges that it is Patty’s right to make her own decision, and that since abortion providers are limited in the U.S., it is her responsibility to help. Naomi has difficulty with Patty’s wish to have a late-term abortion, she even refers to the procedure as a ‘partial-birth abortion’. Addison reminds her that this is a political term and not a medical one. Naomi later goes to the patient to explain to her how far the fetus has developed and encourages her to carry the pregnancy to full term. When Addison finds out, she tracks down Patty at her place of work and she argues that Naomi had no right to interfere with her choice, explaining that at this time, she has options and she has the right to choose. Finally, Addison provides the abortion with the help of Naomi and Naomi appears to have found some peace with it, by recognizing that Addison helped a patient. With the script for this episode, Rhimes drew attention towards the number of abortion providers, and the idea that they could put aside their personal preferences to help a patient. Furthermore, Addison spoke out against the use of a politicized term for the procedure. Several anti-abortion websites took issues with this episode of Private Practice. A blog on the Susan B. Anthony list website, a conservative feminist organization, described how the episode “ended even worse than it began” because the ‘partial-birth abortion was performed, but that ‘supposedly pro-life character” Naomi had helped and changed her views in the end.119 Brent Bozell, a writer for www.lifenews.com, was not happy with the episode either: “Naturally, ABC wasn’t about to be very specific about how grisly the partial-birth abortion is, as Addison euphemistically proclaims to the patient it involves “forceps and suction,” and “the fetus would be removed.” Naomi later protests that it crushed a baby’s skull.”120 Bozell finally expresses his disappointment with Hollywood because they never end an episode or movie

117 “Number of Abortion Clinics in the United States,” the Guttmacher Institute, accessed May 30, 2017. https://data.guttmacher.org/states/table?state=US&topics=57+71&dataset=data 118 Ibid. 119 “ABC’s Private Practice: TV Drama or Planned Parenthood Infomercial?” Susan B. Anthony List, accessed April 28, 2017. https://www.sba-list.org/suzy-b-blog/abcs-private-practice-tv-drama-or-planned-parenthood-infomercial 120 Brent Bozell, “Kate Walsh Plugs Pro-Abortion Propaganda on Private Practice,” Life News, accessed May 10, 2017. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/05/20/kate-walsh-plugs-pro-abortion-propaganda-on-private-practice/ 36 with a woman “deeply troubled by her abortion converting to Christianity” and instead “the pro-lifers fold within 60 minutes.”121 The anti-abortion activists feel underrepresented on television, because the fictional characters, like Naomi, who do share part of their views, appear to find peace with the procedure as part of the solution of the story.

3.2.3 Speaking Up Against Violence

Rhimes and her co-writers use this episode to speak up against anti-abortion activism in the United States. Next to discussing the legal procedure of late-term abortions, the show attacked the political terminology used to influence people. Furthermore, the topic of anti- abortion violence and attacks are discussed. When Addison goes to Patty to convince her she has the right to make her own decision regarding her pregnancy, she comments explicitly on anti-abortion activists and attacks on abortion clinics: “It’s still hard. And even after you make the most difficult and personal decision that there is, it’s still not safe. Because you have some fanatic who claims to value life who can walk into an abortion clinic and blow it up.”122 These comments attack anti-abortion arguments that claim to protect and value unborn human life, yet support a movement that has used violence in the fight against abortion. Anti-abortion activists described Addison’s argument as follows: It’s the ultimate Orwellian argument. “We live in a country where 4,000 abortions are performed daily and it’s the pro-lifers who are killers.”123 This number is incorrect, there were 730,322 abortions reported in 2011, this means that an average of 2,000 abortions per day were performed in the United States.124 The average amount of abortions performed daily in the United States was higher before 2011, however in the years between 2000 and 2017 it has never been more than an average of 2,350 daily and it has been decreasing every year.125 Protests and violence have long been used as tools to spread an anti-abortion message in the United States. The National Abortion Federation published numbers on murder, bombings, vandalism, assault, and other forms of attacks between 1977 and 2009. Since 1977,

121 Ibid. 122 “God Bless the Child,” Private Practice, Prod. Shondaland, the Mark Gordon Company and ABC Studios (2011). 123 Brent Bozell, ‘Kate Walsh Plugs Pro-Abortion Propaganda on Private Practice,’ Life News, accessed May 10, 2017. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/05/20/kate-walsh-plugs-pro-abortion-propaganda-on-private-practice/ 124 “Abortion Surveillance – United States 2011,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, accessed June 15, 2017. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss6311a1.htm 125 Ibid. 37 property crimes against abortion providers in the United States and Canada have included 41 bombings, 619 bomb threats, 1630 incidents of trespassing, and 1264 incidents of vandalism.126 The NAF does remark that the actual number of attacks is likely higher because ‘trespassing’ among other things were never measured before 1999.127 According to the New York Times, at least 11 people have been killed in attacks on abortion clinics in the United States between 1993 and 2015. In 2009, doctor George Tiller was killed by Scott Roeder, who later said that he did it to protect ‘unborn babies.’128 Doctor Tiller was one of the few doctors who performed abortions later in the pregnancy as well as in the first trimester. Rhimes may have used his murder as part of her inspiration for the 2011 episode on late-term abortion. The connection between the storylines is not obvious, however, the dangers of going to an abortion clinic because of violent attacks is clearly present in the script.

3.3 What it Takes to be a Resident in Shondaland

3.3.1 Speaking Up About Women’s Reproductive Rights

Anti-abortion activists are using exaggerated language in their attacks on abortion and the people promoting it. LifeNews has published many articles on the portrayal of abortion on Private Practice. The site also wrote articles to attack Kate Walsh personally for ‘promoting abortion’ and supporting Planned Parenthood. Kristen Walker, who is a comedian, actress, founder of New Wave Feminists, and writer for LifeNews, wrote a blog about Walsh in 2012. In the blog, she argues that because Walsh is pro-choice, she “loves abortions so much”. Walker expresses disgust with Walsh promising signed copies of Private Practice in trade for support for Planned Parenthood on Twitter. Walker uses symbolic language to convince her readers by changing the original tweet into: “Hey followers! Support baby-killing and get a DVD of a crappy show no one watches autographed by your favorite C-list actress, me!”129 Aside from describing abortion as baby-killing, Walker also suggests that Planned Parenthood makes money from abortions, birth-control, and STD treatments and that Walsh and Planned

126 “NAF Violence and Disruption Statistics: Incidents of Violence & Disruption Against Abortion Providers in the U.S. & Canada,” Pro-Choice, accessed May 20, 2017. http://www.prochoice.org/pubs_research/publications/downloads/about_abortion/violence_stats.pdf 127 Ibid. 128 Liam Stack, “A Brief History of Deadly Attacks on Abortion Providers,” the New York Times, accessed May 18, 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/11/29/us/30abortion-clinic-violence.html 129 Kristen Walker, “Kate Walsh Loves Abortion so much, Here’s a Blog about Her,” Life News, accessed May 10, 2017. http://www.lifenews.com/2012/02/01/kate-walsh-loves-abortion-so-much-heres-a-blog-about-her/ 38

Parenthood discourage abstinence because they would not earn any money from it.130 The oversimplified message of Planned Parenthood merely acting on economic motives, or Private Practice and Grey’s Anatomy promoting “lots of recreational sex”131 appear to be exaggerated since the shows illustrate the romantic lives of their characters but do not have a focus on promoting sexual relations. Given the violence and harassment of abortion providers and patients who visit the abortions clinic, it can understandably be quite a hurdle to speak publicly about pro-choice attitudes or narratives. One of the articles on LifeNews was titled ‘Kate Walsh Plugs Pro- Abortion Propaganda on Private Practice,’ this title alludes to the idea that Kate Walsh, the actress playing Addison’s character, was responsible for making executive decisions regarding the storyline or the way in which abortion is represented in show. Despite Walsh’s personal views regarding women’s reproductive rights, she cannot be held accountable for what her character does. Walsh is a public advocate for Planned Parenthood and has expressed her support for the organization through various channels. In a column for Entertainment Weekly, Walsh explained why she got involved with Planned Parenthood; she explains that as a struggling actor she relied on the organization for her annual check-ups. As a member of the board of advocates she is using her position to discuss women’s health and LGBT issues.132 In 2008, Planned Parenthood recognized Walsh with a PPFA Maggie Award “for her extensive advocacy efforts on behalf of affordable family planning services and real sex education.”133 Several of the Shondaland cast members have also used the public stage to discuss women’s reproductive rights or even push a pro-choice agenda. Audra McDonald, who plays Naomi on the show, collaborated on a video promoting reproductive rights before the 2012 elections. The video was considered an attack on the GOP by several anti-abortion websites including LifeNews.134 In an interview with Glamour magazine, the fourth female lead of

130 Ibid. 131 Ibid. 132 Devan Coggan, “Kate Walsh: I Stand with Planned Parenthood Because ‘I Relied on Them as a Struggling Actor,” Entertainment Weekly, accessed May 10, 2017. http://ew.com/tv/2017/03/15/kate-walsh-planned-parenthood-act-with-me/ 133 “PPFA Maggie Awards for Media Excellence,” Planned Parenthood, accessed April 23, 2017. https://www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us/newsroom/campaigns/ppfa-maggie-awards-for-media-excellence 134 “Guess Who? 42 Celebrities Who Support Planned Parenthood, Which Kills and Sells Aborted Babies,” Life News, accessed April 24, 2017. http://www.lifenews.com/2015/08/02/guess-who-42-celebrities-who-support-planned-parenthood-which-kills- and-sells-aborted-babies/ 39

Private Practice, KaDee Strickland, mentioned Planned Parenthood as one of the charities she cares most about.135 Like Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice had the power to send health messages to its audience. By creating Private Practice, and shifting the focus to fertility issues, family planning, and reproductive rights, Rhimes constructed a tool to become even more explicit in telling abortion stories. The characters on this show were often portrayed as very divided on issues of women’s reproductive rights and some of the narratives illustrated that people who are anti-abortion may have double standards when it comes to the topic. Furthermore, some of the narratives show how important it is to use the right terminology. The show’s protagonist, Addison spoke up against the shame women often feel about the topic, but she also spoke up against the political term of ‘partial-birth abortion’, violence by anti-abortion activists, and the importance of her work as an abortion provider, since there are so few in the United States. The storylines and explicit opinions illustrate that Rhimes has claimed more of a stage in defending women’s reproductive rights on Private Practice.

135 Jessica Radloff, “Exclusive: Private Practice’s KaDee Strickland Shares Her Personal Wedding Photos, Takes Us on Set, and Previews Tonight’s Doozy of an Episode,” Glamour, accessed April 26, 2017. http://www.glamour.com/story/exclusive-private-practices-ka 40

Chapter 4: The Gladiatrix How Scandal Is Trying to Shatter the Stigma Surrounding Abortion

Introduction

In 2012, ABC Network introduced Scandal to its Thursday night broadcasting schedule. The show is located in the political heart of the United States, Washington D.C. Olivia Pope, the main character of Scandal, used to be a campaign manager for the Republican President Grant during his run for office. When she stopped working for the White House, she started her own company ‘Olivia Pope & Associates’ who specialize in protecting and defending the public image of the nation’s elite.136 The show’s title refers to the secrets and scandal Pope & Associates encounter in their work. According to ABC’s online description of the show, the main characters of the show have no problem fixing the lives of their clients, however, they have more trouble fixing their own lives.137 The show is produced by Shondaland and ABC Studios and in 2014, ABC Network programmed its entire Thursday night primetime with Shondaland drama series Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, How to Get Away with Murder, and The Catch.138 This primetime line-up was pushed by the network by branding it ‘TGIT’ (Thank God it’s Thursday). Fans of Shondaland have picked up the hashtag ‘#TGIT’ on social media, and frequently use it on Thursdays to discuss the episodes or share their excitement.139 In this chapter I will argue that in Scandal, Rhimes moves away from the medical side of abortion and discusses the topic in a more political and explicit way than she did in Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice. First, I will argue that she illustrates a darker side of people on Scandal. She does so by showing that in Washington D.C. everybody has their secrets. Rhimes is also trying to redefine traditional gender roles by attributing typical ‘male’ traits to her female lead Olivia Pope like she also did with the character of Cristina on Grey’s Anatomy. Secondly, I will argue that Rhimes attempts to redefine the traditional political establishment in Washington by discussing the fight for women’s reproductive rights in relation to the Republican party. Furthermore, she speaks up against sexual violence in the U.S. army and

136 “About the Show.” ABC, accessed May 28, 2017. http://abc.go.com/shows/scandal/about-the-show 137 Ibid. 138 “Thank God It’s Thursday on ABC” the International Movie Database, accessed May 28, 2017. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4043452/?ref_=nv_sr_1 139 Saba Hamedy, “Twitter at Heart of ABC’s Marketing Campaign for Thursday Lineup,” the Los Angeles Times, accessed May 28, 2017. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-tgit-abc-20141126-story.html 41 how problematic the system is when it comes to solving this problem. Finally, I will argue that Rhimes has become even more bold and explicit when it comes to abortion because she made the procedure more visible and spoke up against the shame that often comes surrounds the topic.

4.1 Gladiators in Suits

4.1.1 Redefining Traditional Gender Roles

The fictional character of Olivia Pope is partially based on Judy Smith, a real-life crisis management expert who used to be a press aide during the George H.W. Bush Administration.140 On the show, Olivia has her own crisis management company ‘Olivia Pope & Associates’. The logo of the company features the drawing of a gladiator; Olivia and her colleagues refer to themselves as ‘gladiators in a suit’. In the first episode, Harrison, one of Pope’s associates, explains to his new co-worker Quinn that working for Olivia Pope means that you are one of the good guys and describes Olivia and her associates as warriors: “You will change lives. You will slay dragons. You will love the hunt more than you ever have.”141 Pope has both male and female associates, all of them appear to put their work before everything else; they do not have families or committed relationships. Olivia herself used to have an affair with President Grant while she was working for his campaign. Even though they are no longer involved romantically, the tension between them is still illustrated on the show. Rhimes made a deliberate choice not to illustrate a traditional love narrative on Scandal. She told ABC News that President Grant “plays the damsel in distress a lot” and that he is emotional and continues to get in situations in which he needs Olivia to fix things.142 Rhimes explained that the characters of Olivia and President Grant portray a role reversal: “It’s a very interesting gender switch that we purposely have done.”143 She continues to explain that she is often asked how she writes such smart, strong women and her answer is that she does not know any weak women. Furthermore, she finds it striking, that no one would ever ask how strong men are written. Yet, she does not agree that she is breaking gender and race barriers because

140 “Scandal for Real: Judy Smith’s Real-Life ‘Scandals’,” ABC News, accessed May 24, 2017. http://abcnews.go.com/US/photos/scandal-real-judy-smiths-real-life-scandals-20833182/image-20833969 141 “Sweet Baby,” Scandal, Prod. Shondaland and ABC Studios (2012). 142 “Shonda Rhimes Talks Strong Women, Weak Men and Setting an Example for her Daughters,” ABC News, accessed May 28, 2017. http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/shonda-rhimes-talks-strong-women-weak-men-setting/story?id=25582749 143 Ibid. 42 she claims she is merely representing the world outside.144 Still, the deliberate choice to reverse the traditional gender roles between Olivia and President Grant appears to be an attempt to speak up against traditional gender roles in a patriarchal society, or at least their one-sided representation on television. In 2014, abortion is introduced to the show for the first time. In this episode, a U.S. navy Ensign is pregnant after she was raped by an Admiral. After the President refuses to get involved in the military judicial system, Vice-President Susan Ross asks Olivia to defend Ensign Amy Martin. Unlike President Grant, Olivia is up for the challenge of fighting the military. In this narrative, Rhimes shows that the male ‘leader of the free world’ is not strong enough to stand up for what is right. The episode also shows the President’s wife Millie Grant, who is running for the senate. Millie is very disappointed that her husband does not use his power to speak up against rape, especially, because Millie was once raped herself. Finally, Millie uses one of her campaign speeches to describe her husband as weak because he does not defend women’s rights in public. The women on the show all go around the President’s desire to fight for what they believe is right. The President finally makes a public statement about not condoning sexual violence, however, he only does this after Olivia and her associates find evidence against the Admiral. In this narrative, Rhimes attributes the power to fight for justice to the women on the show.

4.1.2 Hypocrisy & Why Washington D.C. Is the Place to Be

In Scandal, Rhimes offers some insight in the deepest and darkest secrets of Olivia’s high- profile political clients and thus illustrates hypocrisy in Washington D.C. Several media outlets have suggested some of the fictional cases in Scandal were based on real scandals in Washington D.C. The inspiration for Olivia’s character, Judy Smith, served as a co-executive to the show; in a 2014 interview with ABC 7 Chicago, Smith explained she and Rhimes often worked together on new ideas for the show. Smith claims that in her experience as a crisis manager, she has never had to drag any dead bodies out of her office. Furthermore, she emphasizes that she never slept with the President unlike Olivia.145 Still, some of the crisis storylines on the show are loosely based on Smith’s experiences in the field. One of Smith’s most renowned clients was Monica Lewinsky who hired Smith during the President Clinton

144 Ibid. 145 Cheryl Burton, ‘Exclusive: Meet Judy Smith, the Real-Life Olivia Pope,’ ABC 7 Chicago, accessed May 28, 2017. http://abc7chicago.com/entertainment/exclusive-meet-judy-smith-the-real-life-olivia-pope/324838/ 43 sex scandal.146 This real-life scandal was used for the first storyline in the show. In the first episode of Scandal, President Grant is accused of having an affair with a former White House aide, Amanda. Olivia believes Amanda’s story and takes her on as a client but a few weeks later Amanda is abducted and later found dead. She turned out to have had an affair with the Vice-President’s husband who had her killed because she was pregnant. In this episode, Rhimes dramatized real Washington scandals by adding pregnancy and murder into the mix. This part of the narrative was possibly inspired by the murder of Chandra Levy in 2001. After Levy disappeared, the media soon claimed that she had an affair with congressman Gary Condit.147 Rhimes opted for a similar narrative in How to Get Away with Murder in 2014; in the first season of this show, a young girl gets murdered by her married professor after she becomes pregnant and refuses to have an abortion. The tragic fate of the ‘other women’ in Scandal and How to Get Away with Murder also illustrate that in situations like these, women usually get the short end of the stick when it comes to these affair scandals. The television narratives show dramatic solutions to relational problems. Even though the narratives may be inspired by true events, they are magnified in Rhimes’ shows. Rhimes dramatized this by having the female characters murdered in the narrative. In reality, the ‘other woman’ usually suffers a great deal of damage to her reputation. After the sex scandal with President Clinton, it took Lewinsky a long time to leave the image of a promiscuous homewrecker behind her. According to Tracy Everbach, a professor who specializes in news reporting on gender and race, Monica Lewinsky was severely scrutinized by major news outlets. She argues that the frames used by newspapers reflected stereotypical shaming narratives about sexualized women who do not conform to the passive role prescribed by the dominant patriarchal ideology.148 With all the high-profile scandals in Washington D.C. it is easy to imagine there is a high level of hypocrisy present in the political capital op the United States. In Private Practice, Rhimes already displayed the double standards that can be involved in abortion attitudes. Even though Rhimes did not apply a similar plotline to one of Scandal’s influential politicians, there has been a recent case in which a politician was caught for having a hypocritical attitude towards abortion. In 2012, Republican Scott DesJarlais got involved in a scandal during his

146 Alexa Valiente, ‘Scandal Ripped From the Headlines: 6 Real-Life Political Scandals on the Show,’ ABC News, accessed May 28, 2017. http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/scandal-ripped-headlines-real-life-political-scandals-show/story?id=20852177#2 147 Emily Shapiro, “Who Killed Chandra Levy? 15 Years Later, More Questions Than Answers in DC Murder Mystery,” ABC News, accessed June 15, 2017. http://abcnews.go.com/US/killed-chandra-levy-15-years-questions-answers-dc/story?id=43046426 148 Tracy Everbach, “Monica Lewinsky and Shame: 1998 Newspaper Framing of “That Woman”,” Journal of Communication 0(0) (2017): 1. 44 campaign for the House of Representatives. DesJarlais is a prime example of the hypocrisy that is portrayed on the show Scandal. Many Republicans publicly denounce abortion and do not support organizations like Planned Parenthood. DesJarlais publicly opposes legal access to abortions in the United States, however, during the final stages of his campaign in 2012, the Huffington Post obtained evidence that DesJarlais’ ex-wife had multiple abortions, and furthermore, that DesJarlais pressured several of his mistresses into having abortions.149 This case illustrates how hypocrite people can be when it comes to abortion. DesJarlais has repeatedly run for office as a “pro-life candidate,” and even though evidence showed that he advocated for at least three abortions in his personal life, he maintained opposing abortion publicly.150

4.2 Redefining the Establishment

4.2.1 Going Up Against the Grand Old Party

The Republican politicians portrayed in Scandal are more progressive when it comes to women’s reproductive rights than the past few Republican presidential candidates have been. In contrast to the Obama Presidency, which was in place when the show first started airing, Rhimes chose to portray a Republican White House in Scandal. One fan of the show suggested on a forum that Rhimes decided to portray the Republicans on the show as more centrist to appeal to the show’s progressive viewers.151 When the show first started, President Grant’s Vice-President was Sally Langston, a very conservative and religious Republican. This counterpart made President Grant’s presidency more believable because this combination of conservative and moderate would have resulted in greater party support than the more centrist Vice-President Susan Ross who is introduced later in the show. Some of Scandal’s storylines suggest that Rhimes is reversing political stereotypes just like she consciously did with traditional gender roles. On the show, Cyrus Beene serves as the Republican President’s chief of staff. Even though Cyrus’ political preference is never

149 Michael McCauliff, ‘Scott DesJarlais, Pro-Life Republican Congressman and Doctor, Pressured Mistress Patient to Get Abortion (UPDATE),’ the Huffington Post, accessed May 25, 2017. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/10/scott-desjarlais-abortion-pro-life_n_1953136.html 150 Tara Culp Ressler, “Why this Lawmaker Opposes Abortion for Everyone Except his own Wife and Mistress,” Think Progress, accessed June 15, 2017. https://thinkprogress.org/why-this-lawmaker-opposes-abortion-for-everyone-except-his-own-wife-and-mistress- 97bbed7ee304?gi=e79f6f1b84a1 151 “Why Do the Republicans Act like Democrats?” Reddit, Accessed June 1, 2017. https://www.reddit.com/r/Scandal/comments/4lwpeb/why_do_the_republicans_act_like_democrats/ 45 discussed on the show, the chief of staff is always tied to the same party as the President in the United States. If the audience assumes Cyrus Beene is Republican himself, it is even more striking that Cyrus is homosexual and married to a man on the show. At the 2016 Republican National Convention, the GOP published a platform including their standpoints on guns, abortion and same-sex marriage among other issues. On the topic of same-sex marriage, the GOP states that marriage is supposed to be a union between men and women.152 Rhimes did not initially plan on writing Cyrus’ character as gay; she claims that an actor’s performance sometimes her perception of the character. She made the decision about Cyrus’ sexuality rather quickly because she introduced his husband James to the narrative in the fourth episode of season 1.153 Another way Rhimes is challenging the representation of Republican politics is through the character of Mellie Grant. The wife of President Grant has her own political aspirations and desires to become President after her husband’s second term. Mellie is a complicated character, because of the difficult relationship with her husband and not being fulfilled by the duties of a first lady, she struggles with drinking too much and feeling resentment towards what her life could have been and towards her husband. At some point, Mellie decides to run for Senator in preparation of her political career after President Grant completes his second term. As a Republican senator, Mellie makes a very bold statement in support of Planned Parenthood. In episode 9 of season 5, which aired in 2015, Mellie decides to filibuster in the hopes of stopping a proposed bill to defund Planned Parenthood. Rhimes made a bold statement by portraying a former first lady, who divorced the President, and who is now a Republican senator fighting for public funds to support organizations like Planned Parenthood. In the 2016 platform presented at the Republican National Convention, the GOP stated that they believe in the constitution’s guarantee that “no one can be deprived of life, liberty or property.”154 Furthermore, the majority of Republican politicians do not support organizations like Planned Parenthood have any right to public funding.155

152 Will Drabold, “Read the Republican Platform on Same-Sex Marriage, Guns and Wall Street,” Time Magazine, accessed May 27, 2017. http://time.com/4411842/republican-platform-same-sex-marriage-abortion-guns-wall-street/ 153 Alanna Bennett, “Scandal’s Cyrus Wasn’t Supposed to Be Gay but then Shonda Rhimes Saw the Light,” Bustle, accessed May 27, 2017. https://www.bustle.com/articles/21537-scandals-cyrus-wasnt-supposed-to-be-gay-but-then-shonda-rhimes-saw- the-light-video 154 Will Drabold, “Read the Republican Platform on Same-Sex Marriage, Guns and Wall Street,” Time Magazine, accessed May 27, 2017. http://time.com/4411842/republican-platform-same-sex-marriage-abortion-guns-wall-street/ 155 Ibid. 46

4.2.2 Sexual Violence in the U.S. Military

Rhimes also addresses the injustice in U.S. military judicial system, through a storyline about sexual violence in the army. In the episode ‘A Few Good Women,’ which first aired in May 2015, Republican Vice-President Ross visits a U.S. Navy base. She notices that Ensign Amy Martin has a bruise on her wrist. Ross goes to President Grant and demands that he helps protect Amy Martin. Ross expresses her outrage at the fact that “One in three women in the military has been subjected to sexual assault,” and continues “If, God forbid, a servicewoman accuses a man of rape, and he’s found not guilty, she gets prosecuted for filing a false report.”156 In May 2016, the U.S. Department of Defense published an annual report on sexual assault in the military for the fiscal year 2015. In this report is stated that there was a large increase in sexual assault reports between 2012 and 2015. In 2012, 3604 sexual assault reports were made and in 2015 there were 6083 sexual assault reports.157 2015 did have less reports than 2014, however, CNN argues that this drop is due to the size of the military decreasing. This means that proportionally the numbers are still the same.158 By addressing the issue of sexual violence in the U.S. Army, Rhimes has picked up a very topical issue. She continues to use news stories and real-life events as inspiration for her stories. The accused rapist was a lot higher in rank than Ensign Amy Martin, this did not make it any easier to prosecute him. According to Quinn, Admiral John Hawley was “celebrated, decorated, pretty much untouchable.”159 Eventually, Olivia finds proof of Admiral Hawley’s involvement in the rape. Leading up to this, Rhimes criticized the military judicial system and its flaws by letting Pope explain her outrage towards the President: “[d]o you know that if you’re a member of the military, you can’t sue the U.S. government if you’re raped because it’s considered the same as an injury in the battlefield, an occupational hazard?”160 According to the Department of Defense annual report, of the 6083 reports of sexual assault, only 543 subjects proceeded to trial and only 413 subjects resulted in conviction.161 These numbers illustrate that reports of sexual assault are crucial but still do not guarantee justice. Through the

156 “A Few Good Women,” Scandal, Shondaland and ABC Studios (2015). 157 “Report on Sexual Assault in the Military: Fiscal Year 2015,” Department of Defense (2016): 11. 158 Jessica Sarhan, ‘Pentagon: Sexual Assault Cases in the Military Remain Constant,’ CNN, accessed May 27, 2017. http://edition.cnn.com/2016/05/05/politics/pentagon-sexual-assault-annual-report/ 159 “A Few Good Women,” Scandal, Shondaland and ABC Studios (2015). 160 Ibid. 161 “Report on Sexual Assault in the Military: Fiscal Year 2015,” Department of Defense (2016): 49. 47 dramatic storyline of Scandal, Rhimes has shown that there may be so many obstacles on the way to court, that a victim can be discouraged in pursuing a conviction. On the show, Ensign Amy Martin also tries to tell Olivia off: “[t]here’s no evidence, no witnesses. I just want to go back to work.”162 By working all these details into the narrative, Rhimes illustrates that not only should victims be afraid of being prosecuted if their claims are found to be false, furthermore, they fear losing their job by coming forward.

4.3 The Power of Being Explicit

4.3.1 Visualizing Abortion Like Never Before

In the fall of 2015, Rhimes set up a complex narrative which illustrates that Olivia aspires to more than just play house with the President. At this time in the show, Olivia and President Grant are publicly involved in a romantic relationship and Olivia has even moved into the White House where she is struggling to keep her independence. Olivia appears to have a lot of power, advising the President and making decisions for him. Even though she is aware of her influence and power, she finds it difficult to accept that she will never get the recognition for it. This situation again represents the dynamic Rhimes intentionally has created between Olivia and President Grant. Olivia is making almost all political decisions for the President, and President Grant is not even aware of the influence Olivia has on him. However, the President, and in this case the man, is getting all the credit. The episode takes place during Christmas time and the audience sees Olivia and President Grant host a holiday party at the White House. While the President is talking business, Olivia is supposed to entertain the women at the party. Rhimes illustrates a very clear frustration in Olivia’s attitude when she is asked about a certain cookie recipe by one of the guests. In this episode, Rhimes became even bolder when it comes to visualizing abortion on screen. Olivia’s frustrations are clearly illustrated in this episode and this episode also illustrates Mellie filibustering in support of Planned Parenthood. By watching Mellie make headlines, Olivia is confronted with the independence and power she desires. The episode does not show Olivia revealing or discussing her pregnancy, instead, they find out when Olivia is in the hospital waiting room watching the news of Mellie’s success in saving Planned Parenthood’s funding. When the nurse comes to get Olivia, the music of Silent Night starts

162 Ibid. 48 playing. In this scene, the actual procedure is visualized in a way Rhimes had not done before. First, the audience can see Olivia’s feet in stirrups, then the camera moves to the doctor who turns on the machine and picks up her instruments. Following this, the audience can see how Olivia’s hand is holding on to her bed. Once the camera spans out, the audience can even see how the doctor’s arm is moving, visualizing the procedure taking place. Even though, no words are used the powerful images Rhimes is showing make it very clear that Olivia is having an abortion. Rhimes did not only make this clear by showing Olivia and the doctor while the procedure was taking place, she built up to this moment by showing Olivia in the waiting room of the clinic, watching the news where Mellie was making headlines by filibustering for Planned Parenthood. Because the episode spoke out on abortion rights on more than one level at once, the decision to argue a pro-choice agenda appears to be a deliberate choice. The narrative struck a sensitive nerve with many conservative viewers and was even considered as an act of revenge against the Catholic Church. Alexa Moutevelis Coombs, a culture on television blog editor for MRC Newsbusters, described the show crossing a “sickening line” in the episode. She argues “the entire hour was an advertisement for Planned Parenthood, but the absolute worst scene was a montage set to the Christmas hymn Silent Night, a song that celebrates the birth of Christ, while main character Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) has an abortion, killing her and the president’s baby.” LifeNews also referred to an email they received from Bill Donohue of the Catholic League; Donohue argued that “In real life, she sits on the board of Planned Parenthood’s Los Angeles affiliate; this is a curious decision for a black woman—the organization was founded on racist principles.”163 This claim comes from a long history of conservatives who have accused Planned Parenthood of being based on racist principles. Margaret Sanger, who opened the first birth-control clinic in 1916, has been accused of using abortion as a means to “exterminate African-Americans” as part of her support for the eugenics movement.164 The Eugenics movement aimed to improve the overall health and fitness of humankind through selective breeding, however, historians who researched Sanger’s work argue that her mission was to empower women and protect them from “enforced

163 Bill Donohue, “Producer of ABC’s Scandal, Showing Abortion During “Silent Night,” Sits on Planned Parenthood Board,’ Life News, accessed May 28, 2017. http://www.lifenews.com/2015/11/24/producer-of-abcs-scandal-showing-abortion-during-silent-night-sits-on- planned-parenthood-board/ 164 Jennifer Latson, “What Margaret Sanger Really Said About Eugenics and Race,” Time Magazine, accessed June 15, 2017. http://time.com/4081760/margaret-sanger-history-eugenics/ 49 motherhood.”165 In the email to LifeNews, Donohue also argues that Rhimes is using the episode to express her anger against the catholic church because she used to go to a Catholic school where she was reprimanded daily for wearing short skirts.166 Donohue retrieved this information from an interview Rhimes had with the Hollywood Reporter in 2011 in which Rhimes explained that the focus on smart and educated characters comes from her own experience. As a child, she did not understand why anybody would get bad grades but that she did rebel in her own way by wearing sneakers and short skirts.167 Even though, Rhimes did make a religious reference in the late-term abortion episode in Private Practice by naming the episode ‘God Bless the Child,’ she never actually spoke out against Catholicism or refer to her catholic education in a negative way.

4.3.2 No Place for Shame

Rhimes used the abortion narrative on Scandal to break down the shame women often experience when it comes to abortion. www.thefrisky.com, a women’s entertainment and lifestyle website, described Olivia’s abortion on Scandal as a trope-busting and revolutionary alternative to other abortion plotlines on American television.168 Elizabeth Skoski, pro-choice activist and author of ‘Girls Who Find Themselves With Child,’ argues that Olivia’s decision to have an abortion was portrayed as practical and straight-forward instead of filled with sadness and uncertainty.169 Furthermore, the episode illustrated that the abortion gave Olivia back her power. In the episodes that followed, Rhimes illustrated that Olivia’s character did not regret having an abortion once. In one of the episodes, Olivia’s friend Abbey finds out about the abortion and talks to her about how the information may possibly be used against her in a political campaign. Rhimes portrayed a very clear message against the stigma surrounding abortion through Olivia’s reaction: “that would have been a smart move for a campaign, taking down Mellie by shaming me. But the thing is, I am not ashamed at all.”170 The message Rhimes is sending about not regretting the decision to terminate a pregnancy portrays an accurate

165 Ibid. 166 Ibid. 167 Stacey Wilson Hunt, “'Grey's Anatomy's' Shonda Rhimes Turns Up the Heat in New Series 'Scandal',” the Hollywood Reporter, accessed June 1, 2017. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/greys-anatomys-shonda-rhimes-turns-205721 168 Elizabeth Skoski, “How the Abortion Storyline on Scandal was Quietly, Shockingly Correct,” the Frisky, accessed June 1, 2017. http://www.thefrisky.com/2016-05-13/how-the-abortion-storyline-on-scandal-was-quietly-shockingly-correct/ 169 Ibid. 170 “Trump Card,” Scandal, Prod. Shondaland and ABC Studios (2016). 50 picture of American women and their feelings towards their own abortions. Leading reproductive health researchers conducted a research into U.S. women who had an abortion and if they experienced any regret afterwards. The study illustrated that after a three-year research period, 95% of the women regret the decision to terminate their pregnancy.171 Skoski argues that even though the representation of abortion on U.S. television has increased over the years, Rhimes’ portrayal was an extremely important addition to the existing narratives by skipping the melodramatic parts of doubt, sadness, and regret. Rhimes is taking an important step forward with her attack on the stigma surrounding abortion. In the episode, Olivia literally speaks up about not being ashamed of her abortion. In reality, shame is not an uncommon emotion for women who have had an abortion. The study into U.S. women and their feelings of regret after having an abortion also illustrated that women who experienced abortion stigma in their community often had more negative emotions about their abortion. Consequently, women who experienced more social support experienced fewer negative emotions.172 The study concludes that social context is a determining factor for women’s emotions after having an abortion.173 These results underline the importance of Rhimes’ portrayal of abortion. Rhimes has taken an important step forward from her earlier representations of abortions in Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice, in which characters visibly dealt with shame and sadness after their abortions. But she is also doing more than other shows are doing. In Netflix’s House of Cards, first lady Claire Underwood, goes to great lengths to hide her abortion from the public and the press. On this show, Claire represents a Democrat first lady, but still she fears for irreparable damage to her reputation.174 In Scandal, Rhimes has shifted gears and intentionally reversed gender roles. By creating an incredibly strong female lead, Rhimes is portraying a world in which women do not have to take a back seat. The protagonist, Olivia, is running a business while giving the president advise on how to run a country. In the abortion narrative on Scandal, Rhimes illustrates that not all women desire to become a parent, furthermore, she illustrates that they do not have to hesitate about making the decision to terminate a pregnancy nor do they have to be regret it or even be ashamed of it. This is Rhimes’ final step in becoming bolder when it comes to portraying abortion on screen; she is showing that women should not feel ashamed.

171 Corinne H. Rocca et al. “Decision Rightness and Emotional Responses to Abortion in the United States: A Longitudinal Study,” PLoS ONE 10(7) (2015): 2. 172 Ibid, 14. 173 Ibid. 174 Season 2, House of Cards, Prod. Media Rights Capital, Panic Pictures, and Trigger Street Productions (2014). 51

52

Chapter 5: Conclusion

In April 2017, Shonda Rhimes made headlines by joining the national board of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. The organization, which provides health care for women in the United States, has praised Rhimes for her portrayal of women’s health care and even rewarded her with the Champion of Change award in 2017. In her acceptance speech, Rhimes maintained that she was not responsible for any change in the United States: “[y]ou know why I’m not feeling like a champion of change? I’m not trying to be a champion. I’m not trying to make things change.”175 However, her body of work has had a great cultural impact in the United States. Because television remains a powerful media tool, television shows have the possibility to send a message to society. With the arrival of Scandal on ABC Network’s Thursday night programming, the marketing tool of ‘Thank God It’s Thursday’ soon resulted in massive use of the #TGIT on Twitter. Shondaland is trending. Rhimes has been widely recognized for breaking gender and race boundaries on American television. In this thesis, I have discussed in what ways she has represented women’s reproductive rights on her shows. I focused on the portrayal of abortion in three of her shows: Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice, and Scandal to answer the following research question: how does Shonda Rhimes portray abortion in her television series and in what ways do these representations relate to recent developments in the U.S. abortion debate? All of Rhimes’ shows revolve around strong female lead characters and include a racially diverse cast. Another thing the shows have in common is representing the topic of abortion in one or more of their storylines. Both Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice are medical television dramas and they provided the opportunity for Rhimes to portray abortion as a legal medical procedure in these shows. Still, she has further developed her approach of the topic of abortion through the years. Through the different shows, I argued that Rhimes has in fact become more bold in her representation of abortion on television. Through several interviews over the years, Rhimes has maintained she uses her storytelling to represent the world she knows around her. A world filled with strong women and a world in which abortion is a legal medical procedure. More recently, her motives for representing women’s reproductive rights have become more explicit. Rhimes became a board

175 Shonda Rhimes, Planned Parenthood Champion of Change Award Acceptance Speech (2017) Ramin Setoodeh, “Read Shonda Rhimes’ Full Speech at Planned Parenthood Gala: ‘Women Should Be Running Things’,” Variety, accessed June 2, 2017. http://variety.com/2017/scene/news/shonda-rhimes-planned-parenthood-read-full-speech-1202407894/ 53 member for Planned Parenthood’s affiliate in Los Angeles in 2013 and even became part of the federation’s national board of directors in 2017. This illustrates that she is involved with defending women’s reproductive rights outside of the fictional world of Shondaland as well. In the beginning of her career at ABC, Rhimes was less explicit in telling stories about women’s reproductive rights. When Grey’s Anatomy first aired, abortion narratives had already been explored in the American television landscape, yet, as Sisson and Kimport argued, writers often decided on other solutions to abortion narratives. Series like Sex and the City and Desperate Housewives portrayed abortion narratives that ended in motherhood or a miscarriage. Furthermore, when Rhimes introduced the first unplanned pregnancy to Grey’s Anatomy, she had just began working for ABC Studios. Even though, nobody told her not to go through with it, there were strong reactions to Rhimes’ plan for Cristina to terminate her pregnancy. Consequently, she went back into the writing room and came up with an alternative solution in the form of an ectopic pregnancy that resulted in a miscarriage, she later claimed that she regretted this decision. At the time of Private Practice and especially once Scandal was introduced to ABC’s network, Rhimes had made a name for herself at ABC and in Hollywood. She has been called the most powerful showrunner in Hollywood and her body of work has attributed to her uniquely powerful position. In her Planned Parenthood speech in 2017, Rhimes stated that she was not a champion of change because she was not trying to change things. Her shows may just be a fictional representation of the world she believes is around her:

We operate, we gladiate, we exonerate, we investigate, we advocate and if we do our Shakespeare right this summer, we’re gonna agitate and titillate. The secret to making it easy is this: in Shondaland, the land that is Shonda, we tell stories that we care about. Stories that are true for us.”176

But her cultural influence may have more power than Rhimes is ready to admit. Even though, her shows are not making or breaking laws when it comes to women’s reproductive rights, they do spark a conversation. When the Scandal episode showing Olivia’s abortion and Mellie standing up for Planned Parenthood aired, Planned Parenthood expressed their gratitude to Rhimes on Twitter. The episode also drew a lot of negative attention from anti-abortion activists and writers, however, these reactions have no direct effect on abortion policy either.

176 Ibid. 54

Focusing on Brenneman and Moats’ arguments about the importance of storytelling in the fight for marriage equality, the value of honest abortion narratives is more important. Lawmakers can have various motives to support or reject certain legislation and like the example of DesJarlais illustrated, lawmakers may not publicly support what they practice in their private life. Therefore, it is even more crucial to tell stories people can relate to. This fits into Rhimes’ argument about representing real stories about real women who have real abortions. Overall, Rhimes has become more bold in her representations of abortion on screen. Over the course of her different shows, Rhimes has introduced several of Sisson and Kimport’s identified outcomes to abortion narratives. In this light, her work may not be considered revolutionary or even bold. However, there is a certain development visible in the way she treats abortion over the course of her career. This development is illustrated in the outcomes of the narratives themselves, but also in her characters and how they have become more and more unapologetic about having, performing, or defending the procedure. Rhimes herself has never been apologetic about discussing abortion in the stories she tells. However, where she used to maintain that she was merely representing the world she witnessed around her, she suggested in her 2017 Planned Parenthood speech that she is portraying a world run by women and that this would be a better world. This message underlines that she has become more explicit in defending women’s rights in a broader sense. The second part of the research question is more difficult to answer; even though organizations like the Guttmacher Institute describe a strong increase in restrictions when it comes to abortion laws, these restrictions cannot be directly linked to the progress Rhimes has shown in her narratives. Furthermore, Rhimes has never stated that she is defending abortion rights because U.S. legislation is becoming stricter. However, Rhimes appears to draw a lot of her inspiration from real-life events. This is especially clear for Private Practice and Scandal. In these shows, Rhimes is using realistic numbers and arguments for her narratives. Furthermore, she took on the topic of late-term abortion and how this procedure was politicized by the anti-abortion activists calling it ‘partial-birth abortion’. In Scandal, Rhimes has used important news topics like sexual violence in the military and political affairs resulting in dramatic homicides to emphasize the importance of a woman’s right to choose. Even though the storylines are often overly dramatized compared to reality, they are part of her storytelling which could have a cultural impact by her audiences relating to the characters they see and realizing the importance of defending women’s reproductive rights.

55

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Television Episodes

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“A Few Good Women.” Scandal, Shondaland and ABC Studios (2015).

“Best Laid Plans.” Private Practice, Prod. Shondaland, the Mark Gordon Company and ABC Studios (2010).

“Crime and Punishment.” Private Practice, Prod. Shondaland, the Mark Gordon Company and ABC Studios (2008).

“God Bless the Child.” Private Practice, Prod. Shondaland, the Mark Gordon Company and ABC Studios (2011).

“In Which We Meet Addison, Nice Girl from Somewhere Else.” Private Practice, Prod. Shondaland, the Mark Gordon Company and ABC Studios (2007).

“Sweet Baby.” Scandal, Prod. Shondaland and ABC Studios (2012).

“Trump Card.” Scandal, Prod. Shondaland and ABC Studios (2016).

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