The Abortion Debate & Doll’s House

Jane Fonda as Nora in “Doll’s House”

Tuesday

Just when I thought things couldn’t get crazier, it looks like there is a very good chance we’ll have another government shutdown, this one over continued funding for Planned Parenthood. This in spite of the fact that PP has done nothing illegal and doesn’t receive federal funds for performing abortions. PP is mainly used by poor women for cancer screenings, pap smears and birth control.

I recently reread Ibsen’s Doll’s House to see if I could gain insight into what is going on and have made some connections. Let’s first review what’s going on, however.

There have been steady attacks on abortion providers in many states, and it is considerably more difficult for women in these states to get abortions than it was five years ago, even though abortion is technically still legal in this country. Now those attacks have been taken up by the GOP nominees for president, with the result that abortion could well be the main issue in the upcoming GOP primaries. Here’s Paul Waldman in American Prospect:

Abortion has become the dominant issue of the Republican contest, even of Republican politics more generally. Carly Fiorina just shot into second place in the race in at least one poll, based in part on her fervent condemnation of something that wasn’t actually on those Planned Parenthood “sting” videos. Republicans in Congress are getting very close to shutting down the government in order to prevent women from getting non-abortion services like cancer screenings and gynecological exams at Planned Parenthood clinics. A whole series of bills to restrict abortion rights are now getting a prominent hearing in Congress. John Kasich told CNN this weekend that he will sign a bill currently in the Ohio legislature that would outlaw abortions if they are performed because the fetus tests positive for the genetic anomaly that causes Down syndrome, meaning that any woman in Ohio—and wherever else Republicans manage to pass copycat laws—will only be allowed an abortion if the government decides she’s doing it for the right reason.

We could also note that Marco Rubio is against all abortions, even those caused by rape or incest  and Jeb Bush boasts that he cut off funding to Planned Parenthood when he was governor of Florida. (He also doesn’t think we need “half a billion dollars for women’s health issues.”)

Let’s now bring in a real person to make the ongoing debate less of an abstraction. The Washington Post recently ran a woman’s account of her abortion at 21 weeks—which is after the 20-week-limit that Republicans in Congress are calling for. Rebecca Cohen, a health researcher in Washington, discovered that her fetus had two leaks in its brain, destroying it almost entirely. Her choices was either to have an abortion or carry the fetus to term and deliver a dead baby. Here’s what she decided:

I had a choice. I could try to live with the husk of a child inside of me for more than 100 days, swallowing tears at every cheery inquiry as I grew bigger. Or I could have an abortion. And the choice wasn’t just about me. I have young children who would have had to see their mother endure this torture and give birth to someone they would never meet. So we made the painful, but I believe merciful, decision to terminate.

Even after we made that decision, it was difficult to find an available provider, even in an area with as many medical providers as the District. The hospitals had weeks-long waits. In the end, we were able to schedule an appointment at a surgical clinic for the following week.

My pregnancy was 21 weeks on the day of my abortion.

I mourn the loss of my baby every day. But I have no doubt that I made the right decision for myself and my family, and I am grateful that it was my choice to make. I am indebted to my medical providers for their compassion and care. They answered my questions, spent hours on the phone to give me as many options as possible and followed my lead.

Cohen then puts her abortion in a larger perspective:

According to the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, just more than 1 percent of abortions take place at week 21 or later, many because of devastating medical situations like ours. Each of these mothers must battle through her own hell to decide on and find the medical care she needs, gather her friends and family to lean on, and grieve.

Congress should not take this decision away from any woman — any family — who is in need. Banning abortions after 20 weeks would be arbitrary, and its consequences would place an unimaginable burden on women like me.

Medical need is only one reason why women have abortions. Add in all those other decisions, often arrived after similar struggle, and then ask yourself whether rigid laws can do justice to the complexity.

Now to Ibsen. While Doll’s House isn’t about abortion, it is about a man who infantilizes his wife and thinks that she doesn’t have the intelligence to grapple with tough moral decisions. Because he sees her this way, and because she plays along with him out of fear of undermining his masculinity, they have a marriage that can’t face up to the problems confronting them.

If he were not so self righteous and not so worried about being in control, Torvald Helmer would be able to allow Nora to help finance the trip to Italy he needs to regain his health. Instead, knowing that he won’t accept the life-saving measures from her, his wife borrows money behind his back, forges her father’s signature, and then saves money out of her house allowance to pay back the loan. Torvald thinks she’s an irresponsible spendthrift and she allows him to think that of her. After all, she has more important things to worry about.

The GOP, with their legislated ultrasounds, two week waiting periods (for “reflection”), doctor gag orders, and all the rest are infantilizing women, assuming that they are incapable of doing the right thing if the decision is left up to them. There is no acknowledgement of the agonizing that often accompanies a woman’s decision to have an abortion.

In the end, Nora realizes that living under such a regime is no life for her and she leaves her husband. As women have been leaving the GOP.

But the play does hold out one hope, that Torvald and Nora could come back together if he could see her as something other than, to use Nora’s words, “your little skylark, your doll, which you would in future treat with doubly gentle care, because it was so brittle and fragile.”

Imagine if America went at the abortion question in a way that truly looked for solutions. This would have to include truly effective sex education (not abstinence only), full access to free contraceptives, and full social support for children born into poverty. Perhaps pro-choice women could come to understand the sensibilities of those who see the fetus as sacred if they felt that that their own concerns were sufficiently acknowledged. I always thought that Hillary Clinton was trying to find some common ground in her call for abortions to be “safe, legal and rare.” Too many of those against abortion, however, are like Torvald and think only in absolutes.

Will we continue to have non-stop political warfare on this issue? I’m pessimistic but the play ends with a tiny ray of hope. Torvald seems willing to imagine a new way of relating to his wife:

Helmer. Let me help you if you are in want.
Nora. No. I can receive nothing from a stranger.
Helmer. Nora–can I never be anything more than a stranger to you?
Nora [taking her bag]. Ah, Torvald, the most wonderful thing of all would have to happen.
Helmer. Tell me what that would be!
Nora. Both you and I would have to be so changed that–. Oh, Torvald, I don’t believe any longer in wonderful things happening.
Helmer. But I will believe in it. Tell me! So changed that–?
Nora. That our life together would be a real wedlock. Goodbye. [She goes out through the hall.]
Helmer [sinks down on a chair at the door and buries his face in his hands]. Nora! Nora! [Looks round, and rises.]Empty. She is gone. [A hope flashes across his mind.] The most wonderful thing of all–?

So maybe we could have a real social dialogue about women’s reproductive issues where people truly listened to each other. Maybe the most wonderful thing of all could happen. Know hope.