Ideas are often much more powerfully transmitted through stories, culture and narratives of personal experience than through facts or polemics.
And while “abortion rights” have become established in law in most countries (and defended by the majority of the political class), it’s fascinating to note that movies and television dramas are often surreptitiously pro-life.
Bridget Jones’s Baby was last year’s big hit and is now out on DVD. When the ditzy Bridget falls fecklessly pregnant at the age of 43 – having been tipsily involved with two different guys – the option of “abortion” isn’t mentioned once. Quite quickly into the film, we have Emma Thompson as a brisk medic carrying out an ultrasound scan, waving at the small human image on the screen: “Hello, baby!” From there on, it’s a hilarious romp through a comedy that is airily lacking in moral judgment, yet its subtext is affirmatively pro-baby and pro-life.
