Jacqueline Tully, Representation of Women in Popular Media-The Abortion Issue: 1960-1965 (2002)

Mass media played a critical role in introducing the general public to the abortion issue during the 1950s and 1960s. Because abortion was a practice that was uniquely stigmatized, the popular media approached the subject with caution and trepidation. Popular magazines such as Life, Time, Newsweek, and Readers' Digest tended to sidestep the moral undertones of the issue and focus instead on the issues of health and safety.

Popular magazines proved to be subtly persuasive in convincing the American public that abortion was a necessary right. The media accomplished this by relying on several different narratives, each presenting abortion in a particular way. Media told the story of women who were normal and good, but fell upon unfortunate times. The classic case of a woman having an abortion told by the media involved a young, naïve girl who was seduced and found herself pregnant with no place to turn. In reality, two out of three abortions in American at this time involved married women. The media depicted them as good wives and mothers who were left without any choice because of either financial or medical problems. They also told the horror stories of the woman who was desperately in need of an abortion as the victim of rape or incest. Doctors who performed dangerous and unsafe abortions were vilified as butchers.

Popular media wrestled with the most appropriate way to discuss abortion. The coverage tended to be conservative without advocating for any specific position. But the effect of simply bringing abortion issues to the attention of the nation was sufficient to catalyze the substantial change that came in the late 1960s. The most effective technique was to simply muster sympathy for "normal" women who were forced to have abortions. In drawing abortion to the forefront of national attention and making the women involved "real," the media successfully sensitized the American public to an issue which demanded their attention.

 

Revised July 24, 2003 (MD)