Blonde contributes to anti-abortion propaganda, says Planned Parenthood

Andrew Dominik’s adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates’s novel Blonde, a meditation on the myth of Marilyn Monroe now streaming on Netflix, has its share of defenders and its (very) vocal critics.

While some of the debate is about separating fact from fiction, many have zeroed in on the movie’s two coerced abortion sequences and, at one point, Ana de Armas hearing the voices of the unborn. “You won’t hurt me this time, will you?” a computer-generated fetus asks from within its amniotic sac. 

Though not a group much known for giving opinions about classic Hollywood biopics, Planned Parenthood spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about the storytelling choices in Blonde. “As film and TV shapes many people’s understanding of sexual and reproductive health, it’s critical these depictions accurately portray women’s real decisions and experiences,” said Caren Spruch, the organisation’s national director of arts and entertainment engagement.

“While abortion is safe, essential health care, anti-abortion zealots have long contributed to abortion stigma by using medically inaccurate descriptions of fetuses and pregnancy,” she continued. “Andrew Dominik’s new film, Blonde, bolsters their message with a CGI-talking fetus, depicted to look like a fully formed baby.”

“Planned Parenthood respects artistic license and freedom,” Spruch added, “However, false images only serve to reinforce misinformation and perpetuate stigma around sexual and reproductive health care. Every pregnancy outcome—especially abortion—should be portrayed sensitively, authentically and accurately in the media. We still have much work to do to ensure that everyone who has an abortion can see themselves onscreen. It is a shame that the creators of Blonde chose to contribute to anti-abortion propaganda and stigmatize people’s health care decisions instead.”

While powerful forces strong-arming someone into an unwanted abortion, as Blonde depicts, is certainly a violation that could have a lingering psychological impact, Dominik’s film, most critics agree, is not one that deals in a lot of nuance. The abortions, for example, are shot from the fetus’s point of view.

Speaking with The Wrap, Dominik (who has been a bit pugnacious in interviews) waved the concerns away, suggesting the hubbub is due to the movie’s release coming so soon after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. “[N]o one would have given a shit about that if I’d made the movie in 2008,” he said about the anti-abortion claims, “and probably no one’s going to care about it in four years’ time. And the movie won’t have changed. It’s just what sort of going on.”

This story was originally published in Vanity Fair.