“Maybe you’ve been taught that having an abortion is a sin. And the woman who get them are irresponsible party girls. Then you should see “If These Walls Could Talk,” a movie that shows that accidental pregnancies can happen to anyone. (It will be available from Home Box Office video in 1997.)
The three women in the movie are not the kind who sleep around. They are careful, thoughtful women for whom the pregnancy is a huge shock and the decision of whether to terminate it is a big dilemma. One, lost in grief over her husband’s death, gets pregnant when she turns to a friend for comfort. The second is married. The third gets pregnant by a married man with whom she’s having an affair.
The first story about a nurse named Claire Donnelly (Demi Moore) takes place in the 1950’s. Since abortion is illegal, she has no support. She asks her doctor for help and he looks at her like she’s some kind of monster. She can’t go to her family for fear that she will be rejected. This story made me realize how important it is to have a choice!
The second story about a mother of four named Barbara (Sissy Spacek) takes place in the ’70s. Her oldest child is almost off to college and Barbara herself has started taking classes. Her unplanned pregnancy forces her to do some soul searching. Does she want to pursue a career, perhaps retiring early, travel? Or have another baby to call her mommy, celebrate Christmas with Santa, and get through the teenage years, one more time?
She chooses to have her baby. I felt glad that she could choose what she felt was best, not because it was the only choice for her.
In the third story, a young student named Christine Cullen (Anne Heche) has been having an affair with her professor and finds out that she is pregnant.
When she goes to her professor/lover he calmly gives her money to “solve” the problem. She’s hurt because he’s so cold about it. Even though this is a sad scene I couldn’t feel much empathy. When she entered into this affair she should have taken extra care of what she did.
But I did start to feel for her when she tries to decide what to do. Christine is a former pro-life activist, and has always felt abortions were wrong. Her best friend Patti calls her a hypocrite and tells her she’ll dump her if she aborts the baby.
Pro-life protestors meet her outside the clinic
When Christine goes to the clinic she finds a prayer group outside trying to stop her from making a “mistake.” She is asked if she knows that she should keep her baby and that abortions are bad. What could be worse for a woman who is fighting with the demons in her own head?
In the ’90s I had hoped that a young woman would find some sort of compassion. It was scary to see that Christine felt just as alone as the woman who lived in the ’50s, when abortion was illegal. With so many people shouting “sinner,” you would think that Jesus himself had come back to make judgment on people.
Those pro-life protesters really make me mad. Isn’t there something better to fight for? What about the children that are already here? How come no one is fighting to get kids better schools, protection from abusive parents, or help for homeless families? Where are all these God-fearing people at times like these?
I think that I could name a lot more worthy things to go shout about than what a woman does in the privacy of her own doctor’s office. We talk so much about being a great country, but even in our time we have such close-minded people. Someone is always willing to point the finger at you.
All of us, like the women in this film, have the right to make our own way through life, and should have support and understanding for the decisions we make.”