{"id":80900,"date":"2015-11-24T18:15:00","date_gmt":"2015-11-24T23:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"\/news\/?p=80900"},"modified":"2015-11-24T16:47:38","modified_gmt":"2015-11-24T21:47:38","slug":"scandal-actors-comments-allude-much-better-story-abc-probably-wont-tell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/scandal-actors-comments-allude-much-better-story-abc-probably-wont-tell\/","title":{"rendered":"“Scandal” actor’s comments allude to a much better story ABC could (but probably won’t) tell"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

In response to my piece on<\/a> ABC\u2019s abortion-promoting episode<\/a> of Scandal last week, a commenter suggested that pro-lifers\u2019 condemnation of the show was premature because we didn\u2019t allow for the possibility that future episodes in the plotline might present a more complex view of abortion.<\/p>\n

The cast and crew themselves seem to undermine that wishful thinking\u2014producer Shonda Rhimes is a Planned Parenthood board member<\/a>, and stars Kerry Washington<\/a> and Bellamy Young<\/a> have both professed their support for Planned Parenthood\u2014but the idea does show how a more objective creative team could use this episode as a springboard for a very different, genuinely powerful story.<\/p>\n

One of the episode\u2019s many sick details was character Olivia Pope\u2019s decision not to tell the probable father, Fitzgerald Grant, that he had a son or daughter he\u2019ll never meet because she decided on her own to kill him or her. The actor who plays Grant, Tony Goldwyn, said the following<\/a> about the development:<\/p>\n

\n

I think [learning about the abortion] would be, next to the death of his son, the most gutting news he could get and frankly I don’t know how he’d recover from that. I can only assume he would because of his irrational love for Olivia. But the combination of the fact that Fitz’s fondest dream in life would be to have a child with Olivia \u2014 as he put it in Vermont.<\/p>\n

But that dream shattered is part one, and part two is the colossal lie and betrayal and withholding of that terrible truth that Olivia didn’t tell him. At the end of the day, it’s her body and her right, but it’s his child.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

If you still have doubts that the abortion-on-demand mindset is fundamentally irrational, the fact that someone can register the observation \u201cit\u2019s his child\u201d without major alarm bells going off as to whether abortion really is a rightful choice should settle them. It\u2019s one thing to discuss a father\u2019s anguish over abortion in terms of the future possibilities he\u2019s been denied, and quite another to state upfront that you know the thing that\u2019s been aborted was already something more than a blob of tissue. Goldwyn even compares it to the death of a born son!<\/p>\n

Anyway, we discussed last week how appalling it was to see pro-abortion fans of the show not just celebrate the abortion, but affirm that their disregard-bordering-on-contempt for fathers<\/a> goes far beyond denying Dad a say and into denying him the slightest consideration. Olivia\u2019s decision not to tell him was itself a victory for women\u2019s freedom and autonomy! Somehow!<\/p>\n

Contrary to the critics\u2019 swooning, there\u2019s nothing daring about Rhimes and Washington pushing abortion when most of Hollywood already agree that abortion is wonderful, any more than it would be for me to condemn abortion while standing in the middle of the March for Life. The fawning praises are almost pre-written. Telling your fellow travelers what they want to hear isn\u2019t courage.<\/p>\n

What would<\/em> be courageous, though, would be if Scandal\u2019s writers used last week\u2019s chapter as the starting point for a story that really explored the gutted emotions and shattered dreams Goldwyn alludes to. A story that confronted a father\u2019s grief rather than glossed it over, and through it, questioned whether the mother is really the only one with interests at stake and shed light on the object of that grief: an innocent, helpless child.<\/p>\n

Alas, that storyline probably isn\u2019t in the works. But it never hurts to remind Hollywood what real originality and bravery would look like. And who knows? If CBS\u2019s \u201cThe Good Wife\u201d really is going against the grain<\/a> with a more multifaceted take on abortion, then ABC detouring from pro-abortion orthodoxy isn\u2019t entirely out of the question\u2026 someday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In response to my piece on ABC\u2019s abortion-promoting episode of Scandal last week, a commenter suggested that pro-lifers\u2019 condemnation of the show was premature because we didn\u2019t allow for the possibility that future episodes in the plotline might present a more complex view of abortion. The cast and crew themselves seem to undermine that wishful […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":80903,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[599,19,6356,543,1368,1400,6354,1011,3883,6281,6274,6355,6149,6273,6353,5522],"yoast_head":"\n"Scandal" actor's comments allude to a much better story ABC could (but probably won't) tell - Live Action News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It\u00a0would\u00a0be courageous if Scandal\u2019s writers used the abortion to start a story exploring the gutted emotions and shattered dreams of a post-abortive father.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/scandal-actors-comments-allude-much-better-story-abc-probably-wont-tell\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""Scandal" actor's comments allude to a much better story ABC could (but probably won't) tell - 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Calvin is an editor and administrator for TheFederalistPapers.org, and his work has appeared on NewsRealBlog.com, PatriotUpdate.com, LifeNews.com, LifeSiteNews.com, RightWisconsin.com, AmericanThinker.com, Stream.org, AmericanClarion.org, and more. Please check out his official website, ConservativeStandards.com. 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