4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days

Six Films That Deal With Illegal Abortion

by Matt Prigge

Love With the Proper Stranger (1963): Filmgoers in 1963 who flocked to the new romantic comedy starring Natalie Wood and Steve McQueen with the cute poster were in for a surprise: Cute and romantic and comedic though it may be, the film concerns two people seeking a back-alley abortion after a fling. Talk about a meet-cute, eh?

Alfie (1966): Guess which part didn’t make it into the already-craven Jude Law remake? That’s right: the bit where a vile, seedy Denholm Elliott swings by Michael Caine’s flat to abort the result of one of his jaunts. Had it not otherwise featured Caine banging birds, the pro-life movement would’ve seized upon the film, lauding the subsequent monologue, “Alfie, you know what you’ve done? You murdered him!” (Caine would later repent by playing an abortionist himself in The Cider House Rules.)

Dirty Dancing (1987): Nestled not terribly deep in this slumber party classic is a fairly gruesome subplot in which Cynthia Rhodes gets an illegal abortion, and Jerry Orbach has to fix the dude’s sloppy handiwork. How do little girls process this section again?

Rain Without Thunder (1993): Gary Bennett’s PBS-style mock-doc—set not even a little convincingly in 2042—depicts a future where abortion has been outlawed and is punishable by draconian laws (such as being interred in Walker’s Point, a prison named for G.H.W. Bush). Betty Buckley, Graham Greene and Jeff Daniels are among the faux-interviewees who speak directly into the camera about the film’s wildly unambiguous position.

Vera Drake (2004): As seen above (and below), back-alley abortionists are usually depicted as slimy, cackling scoundrels whose moral standards dip far below mere breaking of law. Then there’s Imelda Staunton’s Vera Drake. Helping low-class women in rights-restricted postwar Britain, she exudes all the warmth of a dear old mother, complete with soothing refrains of “Cuppa tea?”

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007): Romania in 1987: soon to be America.