On the topic of TV shows, I started watching Judging Amy in syndication a little while ago. That show rocks and is incredibly feminist. And when Amy, a single mother with lots of money, lots of family and other social support, and a strong interest in children, gets pregnant, she and her mother discuss what they’re going to do about it. They begin with the assumption that she’ll have an abortion (though they don’t use that word… too sensitive for network TV I guess) and move on from there. She ends up deciding to continue the pregnancy, but it’s made very clear that the characters consider abortion to be a completely ethical and logical choice.

Hmm. I have taped all three episodes of Gilmore Girls and haven’t watched my tapes yet, and you guys have totally spoiled it for me. Assholes! (Just joking.) But seriously, if the pregnant character is Lane, I guess I wouldn’t mind that nobody brought up abortion. Lane grew up in a super-conservative Christian household, and she hasn’t fully rejected the sexual morality with which she was raised. That’s why she chose not to have sex until she was married. It seems possible to me that Rory, who knows Lane as well as anyone in the world knows Lane, would know that Lane would never have an abortion. That doesn’t mean that Rory didn’t think anyone in that situation should have an abortion, but that she was trying to do what would be helpful and appreciated by this particular friend.

Now, if Paris got pregnant and nobody mentioned abortion, then I’d be pissed off. Because I don’t think that Lane, the character whom we’ve come to know over the past six years, would have an abortion, but I definitely think that Paris would.

But also, I think a Lane-has-a-baby plot has the potential to be kind of subversive. GG obsessives may remember that way back in season 1, Lane’s mom and Lorelei had a heated discussion in which Mrs. Kim said that she didn’t want Lane to end up like Lorelei, which is to say having a baby at 16. And Lorelei said that that was something they could agree on. Lorelei has always been completely upfront about the fact that having a baby that young was really, really hard. So now Lane has done exactly what her mother wanted her to do: she stayed close to home instead of going away to college, she waited to have sex until she was married, she married young, she got pregnant. If it turns out that doing it the Mrs. Kim way can lead to heartbreak and struggle, too, that kind of undercuts the true love waits message that conservative Christian girls like Lane get fed.

(Or maybe Lane isn’t the pregnant one, in which case I apologize. But I hope she is, because I think that’ll be interesting.)

(And after I wrote that, I saw your post, Hugh Mannity. That’s a terrible story. I’m sorry you had to go through that.)

The psychiatrist was a slightly different matter. He asked me several questions, I knew he was trying to get me to say something, but I wasn’t sure what. Finally after circumnavigating several shrubberies, he asked: “So, tell me, if you are obliged to continue with this pregancy, do you feel you will still have a life to live?” Light dawned. “No doctor. If I can’t have an abortion, my life won’t be worth living. I’d kill myself.” He did everything short of saying “In order for me to sign off on the paperwork I have to have reason to believe you’re suicidal. Give me that reason!”

Of course, the problem with all those hoops to jump through, meant it was pretty late when I finally did get the abortion. 2nd trimester. Not fun.

We have to fight this stuff. We’ve got far too much to lose to go back to those days.

RE: Gilmore Girls and unwanted pregnancy, I thought the same thing on Desperate Housewives when Gabrielle got pregnant. Her husband’s in prison, she doesn’t want a baby, she doesn’t want to be pregnant, she’s rich and could afford the medical procedure, and abortion is never brought up.

I’ve never watched Gilmore Girls, but that was about the point when I stopped watching Desperate Housewives. I swear, that was about the most unrealistic storyline ever, in a show filled with unrealistic storylines.

I’m so glad that someone else had that thought too! I was watching, and x says she’s pregnant. And immediately, my mind jumps to: Your relationship isn’t the most stable in the world. You’re not making a whole lot of money. Your dream job is potentially manageable with a two- or three-year-old; have you thought about how to deal with an infant? Will Mom be the uber-babysitter? Umm…why is abortion not even coming up in this conversation?

Unfortunately, I think the new writers are either going to go with “Oh, look, the kyuuuuute baybee will make everything all better!” or she’ll have a convienient (yet heart-wrenching) miscarriage.

RE: Gilmore Girls and unwanted pregnancy, I thought the same thing on Desperate Housewives when Gabrielle got pregnant. Her husband’s in prison, she doesn’t want a baby, she doesn’t want to be pregnant, she’s rich and could afford the medical procedure, and abortion is never brought up.

It’s like the only place you can get an abortion anymore is on HBO or SciFi.

wow. All hail the Mighty Ponygirl!

And somebody bring me some babies and lox . . .

“Hey everybody Look over here! Babies!! Cute gurgly babyporn!* Aren’t they adorable!! Pay no attention to the actual women behind the curtain!

* In the same sense as kitty- or food-porn, of course. And to make an almost entirely unrelated tangential comment off of Lizard’s, it’s a bad sign when you catch yourself referring to someone’s infant as such a cute kit – I mean baby!