Comments on: Guest Post: Law and Order Episode Imparts No “Dignity” For Women by Jennifer Boulanger

By: Melissa Silverstein

Melissa Silverstein — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 01:22:08 +0000

I got rid of the troll.

By: Kate

Kate — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 23:05:13 +0000

L –
I thought about drafting a cogent and well-thought out reply, but as you are not actually arguing but trolling, I won’t bother with that.

You are an ass, and you offend reality.

By: Rivermaven

Rivermaven — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:28:42 +0000

Re: Sterling_95… Where did you ever get the idea women in the Netherlands can “terminate up to 1 year post birth”??
From a friend in The Netherlands who is also a lawyer:

“No idea what she is talking about. Abortion is allowed until the foetus can survive outside the body of the mother. That is believed to be so 24 weeks after conception. In practice 22 weeks is where the doctors draw the line.I don’t understand how an abortion can be done postbirth. That is nonsense. Prior to the abortion the woman goes to see a doctor. She has to wait 6 days. Alternatives will be told to her. In the end it is the decision of the woman.”
There are so many false statements floating around the internet, it makes my blood pressure go up! In the end, it should be the woman and her doctor’s decision as to whether she should end the pregnancy.

Universal Healthcare is the true pro-life…

By: ginmar

ginmar — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:10:08 +0000

Sterling is clearly trolling; I call bullshit on that classic “I know several women” after the protests-too-much feminist creds. If you’re so damned feminist, it should be apparent.

I cannot stand L&O, and haven’t been able to in a good long while. All the ‘twists’ are always about how evil those damned women are. My roomie loves it, but my roomie is starting to scare me, the way she laughs at rape and torture scenes in movies.

By: verasteine

verasteine — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 22:39:10 +0000

@akshelby: being Dutch, I can tell you that this is absolutely not true. Abortion is legal up to 21 weeks. Post-birth termination, if you can call it such a thing, is part of the euthanasia legislation, which is legal here, but under scrupulous review by a panel of doctors. Euthanasia of babies of that age is extremely rare, and happens only if the suffering of the child is unbearable.

By: akshelby

akshelby — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 22:01:24 +0000

Sterling95 said: “we have the Netherlands, where parents are allowed to terminate up to 1 year post birth”

Do you have source for this claim?

By: nan

nan — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 21:16:35 +0000

Sterling95 said “I also personally know multiple cases where the woman aborted purely for non-health reasons (in 5 of them, they wanted boys and discovered late on that they were carrying girls…)

I call nonsense. This is such an awesome staw woman arguement – ‘oh those willy nilly ladies, suddenly deciding to get abortions in their third trimester.’ It’s hurtful to perpetuate what is clearly untrue. Third trimester abortions are very expensive and there are only a handful (at best) of doctors who perform it. So, it’s not exactly like women are strolling into PP in their 24th week and getting abortions.

By: Shada

Shada — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:15:47 +0000

No one and I mean NO ONE decides to have a late term abortion for “convenience” reasons. Over half (60%)of women getting all abortions are already mothers. They have the moral capacity to make this decision. To disparage them is to disparage all mothers. You can’t have it both ways – sugarcoat motherhood and sing the joys of having babies if you are then going to demean these same women when they make the choice to have an abortion.

Note; I have the privilege and honor of knowing Jen Boulanger personally. She is a true champion of women.

By: Anna

Anna — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:30:20 +0000

"In this young woman’s case, her fetus was diagnosed with a rare skin condition that is potentially fatal and requiring constant medical care." Skin condition? I should the child was diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome?

By: digg » Blog Archive » The "Law and Order" Abortion Disaster and The Wasteland of TV

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:05:41 +0000

[...] offense at the tone of the show: our own Charlotte Taft and Jennifer Boulanger, a guest-postng at Women and Hollywood. The cry was picked up by Ms. Magazine, and noticed by Feminist Law Professors and even [...]

By: embell

embell — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 03:03:04 +0000

Right on target, Jen. Hollywood and its descendants sugar-coat everything, especially Mom and apple pie. No hard choices for long, and never a bad outcome. You’ll never see them show the infants who have been dipped in boiling water or beaten with elecctric cords or burned with cigaretter, etc., that’s not who we Americans are, no way. At least not in public. Letter sent to NBC, thank you for speaking out.

By: Sterling_95

Sterling_95 — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:06:16 +0000

I may be in the minority, but I actually liked this Law and Order episode. I’m a feminist to the bone and I actually worked for Planned Parenthood, but I also know several other feminists who are pro-Life and they are not anti-women in any way and would be pretty offended to be called so. Law and Order has done 3-4 episodes on abortion over the years. In almost all of them, the pro-life characters were murderers/hypocrites/sexists or all 3, so it’s about time the other side got their say. The doomed baby born alive is not inaccurate after all – I’ve heard of other cases where the fetus was expelled alive, and then disposed of.

I’m not disparaging women who have gone through the agonizing experience of wanting a child then deciding to abort due to health issues. However, I also personally know multiple cases where the woman aborted purely for non-health reasons (in 5 of them, they wanted boys and discovered late on that they were carrying girls. In one of them, she was getting a divorce and didn’t want to be a single mother. In another, she was hoping to use the pregnancy as leverage for her lover to leave his wife and he wouldn’t). Like it or not, the public tends to feel squeamish at getting rid of a late pregnancy for non-selfless reasons, especially when it involves a viable being. Europe tends to be more equal rights focused than the US, and 3rd trimester abortions are illegal in France, with extremely limited exceptions. And on the opposite end, we have the Netherlands, where parents are allowed to terminate up to 1 year post birth

By: grrljock

grrljock — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:49:23 +0000

Complaint sent to NBC.

By: Tweets that mention Guest Post: Law and Order Episode Imparts No “Dignity” For Women by Jennifer Boulanger | Women & Hollywood -- Topsy.com

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:51:07 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Melissa Silverstein, Kith Tsune. Kith Tsune said: Two good articles about the recent "Dr. Tiller" Law & Order episode : http://tinyurl.com/yl7tzj5 @melsil & http://bit.ly/1nUjPT @KateHarding [...]

By: Deaf Indian Muslim Anarchist

Deaf Indian Muslim Anarchist — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:27:49 +0000

I like this part most especially:

“More often these days when (it’s usually more like if) a female character in primetime contemplates abortion, she is portrayed as contemplating her own moral failure. And ultimately, she usually either continues her pregnancy or has a miscarriage – she will almost never have an abortion. More importantly, if she does cross that forbidden media barrier, she will never feel good about doing so.”

so true. SO TRUE.