{"id":173279,"date":"2017-10-17T14:11:43","date_gmt":"2017-10-17T18:11:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=173279"},"modified":"2017-10-18T18:02:07","modified_gmt":"2017-10-18T22:02:07","slug":"abortion-was-a-tool-for-men-in-classic-hollywood-to-cover-up-sexual-assault","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/abortion-was-a-tool-for-men-in-classic-hollywood-to-cover-up-sexual-assault\/","title":{"rendered":"Abortion was a tool for men in classic Hollywood to cover up sexual assault"},"content":{"rendered":"
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As new revelations continue to emerge from the Harvey Weinstein scandal, celebrities are starting to speak up about their own experiences with sexual assault. The Weinstein scandal<\/a> has shown the nation that not a lot has changed in Tinseltown \u2014 and that may be the most disturbing part of it all. The Weinstein drama reeks of power and control.<\/p>\n

Tragically, Hollywood has a long history of treating women as sex objects who are controlled by movie studios and oppressed by those who held the keys to stardom; and abortion has been a tool for movie moguls to coverup their crimes. The sad truth is, Hollywood and abortion go way back.<\/p>\n

Detailing the secret abortions of the early and mid-20th century stars, an\u00a0article in Vanity Fair<\/a>\u00a0asserts that “Hollywood\u2019s production codes extended to women\u2019s reproduction.” However, the only real difference today is that the abortions to save a career are not a secret anymore. Several decades ago, though, in Hollywood, “abortions were…birth control.”<\/p>\n

In the era of classic Hollywood, the power reportedly laid in the hands of MGM\u2019s head of publicity, Howard Strickling, who earned the ironic title of \u201cfixer.\u201d His “fix” was to break women\u2019s bodies of the babies growing inside of them so they could continue their careers as movie stars. Like Weinstein\u2019s accusers declare, women in Hollywood were sex objects for powerful men. However, in the Hollywood of old, when sex led to pregnancy, women were led to abortion as the solution.<\/p>\n

As early as 1922, stars reportedly had \u201cmorality clauses\u201d written into their contracts. Consequently an unintended pregnancy would not only bring shame to these top box-office earners\u2014it would violate studio policy. The fear was that having children would deem the women no longer \u201cglamorous.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vanity Fair\u2019s insight into the male power structure in Hollywood offers a “who’s who” of classic Tinseltown and the circumstances surrounding their abortions. They include<\/a>:<\/p>\n