Abortion -- the final taboo on TV

I have thought this many times and commented on it occasionally -- it was great to read it, all spelled out like this by Philadelphia Inquirer Columnist Alfred Lubrano:

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/12967216.htm

Saturday, October 22, 2005
"Unconventional Wisdom"
Abortion remains the final taboo of prime-time TV

I love how President Bush says the subject of abortion just never came up in his talks with Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers.

Of course not.

Apparently, abortion makes everyone shy. It seems to be off-limits even on prime-time broadcast TV, where it's been exceedingly rare to see a major character get an abortion.

If a recurring character who is single becomes accidentally pregnant, she will more often than not keep the baby, like Rachel on Friends, Murphy Brown on the program of the same name, and even randy Miranda on cable's Sex and the City.

Sometimes, a mighty deus ex machina will obviate the pregnancy, as on Grey's Anatomy, when Sandra Oh's character, who had decided to get an abortion, recently developed complications that made the procedure conveniently moot.

Painted by the right as godless liberals, network and Hollywood honchos are actually gutless bottom-liners.

They are plagued by two worries: alienating viewers from their lovable TV characters, and upsetting highly organized antiabortion groups.

In reality, 54 percent of Americans favor abortion rights, according to an August CNN/Gallup poll. And 1.2 million women had abortions in 2002, says the Alan Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive-health think tank.

With so many people supporting the right to have the procedure, and so many women undergoing it, you'd think it would have shown up on the tube at least occasionally.

But no. It's like death and situation comedies. An astonishing number of characters on sitcoms have been widows and widowers through the years (call it The Brady Bunch Syndrome). That's so characters didn't have to be divorced, which shows flaws, which makes someone less likable.

Back in the 1970s, Norman Lear made news when the title character of his hit sitcom Maude had an abortion.

Although language has coarsened and sex has become more explicit on network TV since then, it still would be highly unlikely for the lead character in a comedy - or even a drama, for that matter - to get an abortion today.

The Parents Television Council, a watchdog group that advocates "family-oriented" programs and strict enforcement of indecency laws, tracks any TV plot lines that include abortion. Council researcher Melissa Caldwell could find no recent examples of a prime-time broadcast show in which a regular character underwent such a procedure.

Ultimately, it's just too risky for the people who make TV.

"Abortion is so dicey, it's become one of the last real taboos on television," says TV expert Robert Thompson, professor of popular culture at Syracuse University. "Most networks and cable channels realize it isn't worth the trouble they know they will inevitably get.

"There are powers afoot that can really make noise. It's too bad that an industry has been so cowed by fear."

Without endorsing or condemning abortion, scriptwriters could present the kind of honest discussion that's all too rare these days.

But ever since Janet Jackson fell out of her costume last year, it seems the moralist rhetoric has ratcheted up. Her wardrobe malfunction inadvertently showed the networks how powerful the right can be. And how serious the culture wars really are.

Contact columnist Alfred Lubrano at 215-854-4969 or alubrano@phillynews.com.