The movie “Dirty Dancing” is known for its iconic shot of Patrick Swayze’s character, Johnny Castle, holding Frances ‘Baby’ Houseman, played by Jennifer Grey, in the air as “(I've Had) The Time Of My Life” plays triumphantly.
But one scene of a character suffering from a botched back-alley abortion has also been remembered.
Though the movie is set in 1963 in the New York Catskills Mountains and follows a blooming romance between Johnny and Baby, the movie is noted for its dark portrayal of Johnny’s dance partner, Penny Johnson, being unable to afford an illicit abortion and almost dying from one she received.
“Dirty Dancing” is technically an abortion film.
On June 24, the Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization effectively ending the right to an abortion after almost 50 years, according to a June 24 New York Times article.
“The guy had a dirty knife and a folding table!” one of the characters says to Baby, who frantically runs to get her father, a physician who gives Penny the medical attention she needed.
The scene is now a stark reminder for what may become the reality for many Americans.
Studies from Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health, show that in the last 50 years, film and television “dramatically overrepresents abortion as dangerous.”
One example is the “Law and Order” episode “Dignity,” in which the detectives look for a man who killed a late-term abortion provider, Dr. Benning, during church service.
The character was based on George Tiller, a real-life doctor who was assassinated on May 31, 2009 for providing late-term abortions at his Kansas clinic, according to a May 31, 2019 Rolling Stone article.
The episode was released the same year he was killed and shows the dichotomy between staunch pro-life activists and pro-choice characters who are unwavering in their abortion support.
That all changes when the fictional Assistant District Attorney Connie Rubirosa finds out that Benning botched a late-term abortion causing the woman to go into labor and deliver a live baby, so of course what does the abortion provider do?
Benning asks the woman if she wants to keep the baby, to which she declines. He then killed the baby with a pair of scissors.
A nurse who attends the abortionis so appalled by the homicide that she decides to leave the practice to work in a neo-natal unit, instead of contacting the authorities.
As I watched the episode, I couldn’t understand how this would ever play out in the real world. Were they trying to insinuate that late-term abortion providers would murder a live baby?
Abortions after 21 weeks are uncommon, and represent 1% of all abortions in the United States, according to research by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a non-profit organization that focuses on major healthcare issues affecting the U. S.
People seek late-term abortions because of medical concerns including unviable fetal anomalies such as genetic defects, maternal life endangerment and barriers such as income that delay the process of obtaining an abortion, according to the same research.
On Netflix’s “Sex Education,” the character Maeve, played by Emma Mackey, gets an abortion.
The depiction of the procedure was lauded as “accurate” and “refreshing,” according to a Jan. 15, 2019 Teen Vogue article.
“The way abortion is portrayed matters: Abortion is a simple procedure that takes only minutes, and implying that general anesthesia is required could create unnecessary anxiety for those seeking abortion care," Helen Weems, a family nurse practicioner, was quoted in the same article.
A person’s right to choose was shown in the 2007 film “Juno,” starring Elliot Page as the 17-year-old titular character, Juno.
Juno and her friend discuss obtaining an abortion as if it’s an appointment at the dentist: simple and easy.
Juno decides against an abortion when she is stopped by one of her schoolmates protesting abortion in front of the clinic, convincing her to not go through with the appointment after informing Juno the fetus has fingernails.
“All babies want to get borned!” the character Su-chin says to Juno as she walks by, acting as the comedic relief.
The screenwriter of “Juno”, Diablo Cody protrays pro-life protesters as comic relief to the story, however many anti-abortion activists reportedly praised the film for its “strong pro-life message” according to a May 17, 2019 Washington Post article.
Years later, Cody stated she wouldn’t write the story she wrote for “Juno” today.
“I don’t even know if I would have written a movie like ‘Juno’ if I had known that the world was going to spiral into this hellish alternate reality that we now seem to be stuck in,” the screenwriter said in a May 15, 2019 episode on ‘Keep It’ a podcast about how pop culture and politics intersect.
Cody also expressed regret that her story has been associated with anti-abortion stances.
“In a way I feel like I had a responsibility to maybe be more explicitly pro-choice, and I wasn’t,” she was quoted in an April 9, 2017 Vanity Fair article.
Similar to “Dirty Dancing,” the 2022 documentary “The Janes” released on HBO Max shows the reality of a pre-Roe world.
In spring of 1972, Chicago police raided an apartment that was part of an underground network run by activists who provided people with illegal, safe and affordable abortions, according to the HBO Max website.
Seven of the leaders faced up to 110 years in prison respectively for their activities with the Janes; those prison sentences were never served because Roe v. Wade was decided the following year.
The Janes provided abortions to over 11,000 women in the midwest, “As the word spread, it became quite clear that not only was there a need [for abortion], but there was an incredible void,” said Tia Lessin, the co-director of the documentary, in a June 28 Indiewire article.
The documentary showcased “septic clinic” wards of hospitals that would treat women who were wounded by back-alley or self-inflicted abortions.
“We needed to understand the stakes of this drama and why these women were willing to risk so much at such a young age,” said Lessin in the same article.
Abortion is once again being criminalized across the U.S., with 23 states enacting abortion restrictions after Roe v. Wade’s overturn., according to a June 24 NBC news article.
We don't have to look to the cautionary tale of Penny almost dying in “Dirty Dancing,” nor do we have to look back to the Janes almost going to prison for 110 years.
The past has now become the present reality.
