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| Also listed in: Campus Progress Blog |
*Spoilers Abound*
One of the many reasons that I loved Juno was just how sweet-tempered it was. The movie predominately had characters being nice to each other, and for Juno particularly, those around her were mostly understanding and kind. The same goes for its politics. Like Knocked Up, it has a brief run-in with the possibility of abortion, but for obvious plot reasons, she doesn’t go through with. Juno is then a decent movie for both the pro choice and pro life causes, the former because Juno is supported by her friends in family in whatever choice she makes, and the latter because the film depicts getting an abortion to be a poor decision for the protanginist to make.
Ross Douthat, “movie obsessisive and pro life scold” makes the latter argument, mostly because Juno rejects abortion not only because she’s expressing her “personal autonomy that’s of a piece with her broader nonconformity,” but also because the fetus “already has fingernails.” While Juno clearly isn’t Ramesh Ponnuru in thinking the fetus should have the rights of a person, she is at least sympathetic to pro-life concerns. But I feel like Ross is missing some broader points about Juno, that despite its pro-pregnancy, abortion skeptical message, it is, at its core, all about choice.
The reason Juno is able to go through with the pregnancy is the same reason she is able to openly contemplate abortion. It’s because everyone close to her is incredibly supportive of whatever choices she makes. While it’s not true that all pro-lifers would want to slut-shame Juno, it’s certainly true that, on average, those in the pro-life movement would be more likely to have a reaction that included, “why is she having SEX at 16?” Her parents, while certainly not thrilled that their 16 year old daughter is pregnant, support her in whatever decision she makes. Their refusing to be judgmental is an attitude that is fostered by pro-choice convictions.
It’s impossible to ignore that Juno immediately plans on getting an abortion and is in the clininc before she gets cold feet. So why does she back ou?. While Ross is certainly right that the “fingernails” were a big part of it, when she is explaining her decision to Leah, she says that the clinic “smelled like a dentists office” and while she’s there, she is visibly turned off by the shabbiness of the place and odd, goth receptionist. The fact that her decision is influenced by the “unremitting grossness of the abortion clinic” is another reason why Juno is a pro-choice movie. In states/regions that are more generally pro choice, the idea is that abortion clinics won’t turn off their potential patients by being so nasty. If the ability for a 16 year old girl to be as autonomous as possible in dealing with her pregnancy is valued, than her shying away from abortion because the clinic is off-putting isn’t really a good point for the anti-abortion cause.
While Ross is certainly right that Juno is “decidedly a brief for not getting an abortion,” I think he would be wrong to generalize out from that. Juno is a brief for why the main character, Juno, made the best decision for herself in keeping the baby. It is a brief for tolerance, acceptance and being sympathetic to girls and women who have unplanned pregnancies. And while there is much for both pro-lifers and pro-choicers to like, the celebration of tolerance and autonomy is also a celebration of what being “pro-choice” means, in its highest form.
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The point is that Juno's parents and friends were extremely supportive of her choice, but there are plenty of young women out there who aren't so lucky. And that's why it's important to value choice.
You like them so much, you're in favor of allowing them to be murdered.
I feel Juno though. I've definitely been in clinics (in conservative and progressive areas alike) that have been uncomfortable and awkward. Everyone is silent and occupies themselves with other things other than comforting or talking to each other. And believe me, I've dealt with those callous receptionists before.
But. A movie is politically important not only for what it says and shows, but for what people see and interpret. And what will stick in viewers' memory is not that her friend is ready to give her a telephone number for the abortion clinic, or that her parents are supportive (but they're supportive when she tells them she found an adoptive couple, we don't know how they would react if she decided for abortion). They will remember the happy ending, the brief moment of grieving for having given her baby away, and then ... just love, a new life, everything forgotten, everything forgiven. This is what young teenagers should do: be brave, be the bearer of a baby for someone else. This is what people, after all, remember. This is why, besides the humor and the wit, they like the movie so much. Because, as correctly pointed out by Caitlin Flanagan on the NY Times, it's a sappy fairy tale. People pro-choice see the choice in it. They see the alternative. Don't delude yourself thinking that people who are confused about the matter will see it.