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“Thrilled” about the Abortion on Grey’s Anatomy

This week at Feministing, writer Maya publicly proclaimed that she was “thrilled” that on the September 22 episode of Grey’s Anatomy, Sandra Oh’s character Cristina Yang had an abortion.

To be sure, Maya wasn’t the only pro-abortion writer who couldn’t contain her excitement in the wake of the show’s airing.  One other was Jane Cawthorne of The Abortion Monologues, who had a guest post at Abortion Gang in which she speculated about what she considers “the most interesting question in TV” right now: what will happen to Cristina?

Cawthorne doesn’t want the Grey’s Anatomy writers to make Cristina suffer any form abortion-related trauma, and so she presents her own thoughts:

This is what should happen. Cristina goes on to have the life she is planning and has worked so hard to get. She feels relief. She finishes all of her training and becomes a world renowned cardiac surgeon, unencumbered by offspring she did not want. She has a good marriage with Owen, with no more than the normal ups and downs that any relationship faces.

In a future episode, Cristina considers what birth control is best for her. Meredith and Cristina have a long discussion about the relative merits of everything from birth control pills to IUDs. Cristina, never one to do anything in half measures, decides to have a tubal ligation. Meredith is aghast and says, “Seriously?” She tries to talk her out of it, saying there are effective non-surgical options to control fertility. But Cristina says, “Mer, I’m some kind of pregnancy magnet. Please, respect my decision.” Then Owen dramatically intervenes just as the nurses are prepping her for surgery and announces that, out of love for his wife and his new understanding that she will never want children, he will have a vasectomy. America is informed about this safe and viable option. Owen gets snipped and goes back to work the next day.

A further series of episodes involves Cristina and Owen creating an abortion clinic when they realize a lot of women have trouble accessing services.

And, for the coup de grâce, Cawthorne expressed her hope that Cristina “lives, as much as anyone can on Grey’s Anatomy, happily ever after.”

Wishful thinking like this is beyond parody.

It’s the kind of sentiment that could only be expressed on TV, or in the imagination of someone who believes abortion is a good and beautiful thing and is stone blind to the ever increasing number of women who have had abortions and maintain that the experience was absolutely horrific, so much so that they’re still suffering years, and even decades, later.

A Very Different Perspective on the Experience of Post-Abortive Women

Jane Cawthorne and Feministing’s Maya could learn a thing or two about abortion trauma by attending the Healing Vision Conference [PDF] next month in Milwaukee.

So too, for that matter, could the rest of us.

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