The film's many shortcomings not withstanding, it warrants MUST viewing by all readers of this critique, as it reveals much about what we are up against where mass media treatment is concerned. Indirect in its underlying condemnation of abortion on request, the film is a far more costly blow against abortion rights than anything the anti-abortion crowd could possibly hope for or ever produce - and they are big gainers (at no cost to them) from its sappy popularity.
To be sure, very little time is given to showing an Abortion Clinic - and for that pro-Choice Americans must be grateful. For what is shown comes across as no place you would not want anything to do with. For openers, its parking lot is nearly empty, as if to suggest hardly anyone comes there (only 1,400,000 or so clients a year in recent years). For another, there is only one protester outside, a sweet Asian-American high-school girl, carrying a sign with the standard false picture of a third semester fetus passed off as a first-semester one. She lies to Juno about the likely state of fetal development. ("It has fingernails!"), a lie that takes a toll. One lone demure protester - and this, as a time when clinics in Albuquerque, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and elsewhere are experiencing dangerous and ugly mass protests by impassioned extremists, some of whom the police can barely contain.
Once our heroine gets inside things get worse. She meets an ultra-hip young poseur pretending to be a trained clinic receptionist who barely welcomes Juno. She then publicly questions the girl about intimate matters in less than an empathetic way. As this wasn't bad enough, she volunteers details about the sexual appetite of her boy friend, and leaves Juno more confused and unsettled than ever.
Having thus set an unappealing stage, the camera next surveys hapless stereotypes the film-makers want America to believe are the major types found in a typical clinic waiting room. The only people shown are female (though perhaps 50 percent of actual clients have a male accompanying them). All of the women appear doleful, though many actual clients are relieved to have this medical option. All appear isolated, though many actual clients come with close and supportive friends. Little wonder that a panicked Juno is next seen energetically running away from the Clinic, much to the delight of the lone protestor who shouts after her - "Your baby has fingernails!"
Where abortion clinic waiting room males are concerned, mis-representation is much the same. First, none are shown, though as many as 600,000 or more guys find themselves in the role annually (25 percent of whom have been there more than once). Second, although a scene shows a high school teacher demonstrating to a sex education class how a condom is rolled down a stage-prop (the standard banana), Juno's boy friend is pictured as utterly naïve about contraception (the nearly 3,200 such males who have completed a survey for me want to know more about it, but do not seem as anywhere ignorant as the film character).
On three scores, however, the film stumbles, which is to say, it actually gets something right: First, it has the boy quickly consent to Juno's pro-abortion decision, only to wonder later who really made the decision? He could not recall being asked his view before the matter seemed to get resolved (nearly 4 in 5 males tell me this is their experience, though close to 90 percent support the abortion). Second, Juno does not invite him to go with her to the clinic (15 percent of women never tell their sex partner before the abortion, and over 50 percent are accompanied by another female). Third, the boy does not discuss his situation with anyone (nor did my 3,000-plus male respondents, though a small minority spoke briefly with clinic staffers while the abortion was occurring).
Which is to say, clinic waiting room males need a lot more care, attention, and contraception education than hinted at in this film ... if, that is, we are to soon reduce the rate of ill-timed and unwanted pregnancies. (I plan with Pittsburgh area Clinic Director Claire Keyes to soon discuss the case for reform here in another RH essay).
This movie, allegedly a "marvelously offbeat comedy, which is sheer joy from beginning to end" (Critic Dennis Dermody), had an opportunity to treat abortion or pregnancy honestly, and it did not. A critic would have you believe you will "laugh deeply" (Peter Travers). I hope you will instead sigh deeply, and get angry at irresponsible mass media types that with this film have set back the cause of abortion on request and the assumption of male responsibilities in the matter. While there is much to admire about Juno as a witty and promising young person, there is much about Juno as a film to resent and regret.
]]>Unless and until we make overdue progress in refining what it means to be a man, we may always rue the situation where men and abortion is concerned. We need clarity: to be a man is to have the well-being of all women as a central concern, and to understand that where their bodies and mental health are in jeopardy the woman's final decision is just that—final.
Second, unless and until we make overdue progress in refining what it means to be a sexually active man, we will have far more abortions that is healthy for men, women, and other living objects. We need clarity: to be a sexually active male is to take full responsibility to being a knowledgeable and sensitive contraceptor. This is not a role only for females, but is a shared responsibility that males must undertake with far more intelligence and artistry that at present.
Schools and various formal religions, along with the mass media, must do their part in raising the level of male awareness of contraception options, and their various strengths and limitations.
Finally, unless and until we make overdue progress in reforming the Abortion Clinic scene, we will not achieve a desirable state of affairs—one that honors us all. A male in a clinic waiting room should have rights and responsibilities.
His rights include access to solo and/or couples counseling, access to contraception education, access to knowledge about the procedure, access to his mate in the procedure room (if she so requests), and access to his mate in the Recovery Room (if she so requests).
His responsibilities include learning how to be a better contraceptor, learning how to prepare for any emotional turmoil immediately after the procedure, and learning how he might help pro-choice organizations keep access to abortion legal.
This agenda is a complex and arduous one. Fortunately, it has momentum, as many fine clinics across the nation are far ahead in the matter, and many clinic leaders are advocates of the reforms cited above. What is lacking is a men's movement to promote the changes, and a mass media campaign—consistent and sensitive—to help call public attention to the challenge. Thanks now in some small, but possibly significant part to the Men and Abortion website that Claire Keyes and I have launched, thousands of men and women world-wide are beginning to get the message—and I am more hopeful now that at any time since the mid-1980s when I helped write the first book on the subject: Men and Abortion: Lessons, Losses, and Love. I sense a turning in favor of reform, and it cannot come soon enough.
]]>Art Shostak, Ph.D., is a Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Drexel University.
Over 600,000 males annually find themselves in the waiting rooms of the nation's nearly 400 abortion clinics (about half of all abortion-seeking women are generally accompanied by a man, as the regulations require assistance on leaving after the procedure). I have been there, first in the late 1970s as a perspiring young single man accompanying my nervous lover, and ever since as an applied sociologist drawn to find out more about the guys I sat among for three hours (and thereby, more about myself).
After my own abortion involvement, I helped create the first-ever national survey of males in abortion clinic waiting rooms (an exploratory, rather than a random and scientific study) and co-authored the still only academic book on the subject - Men and Abortion: Lessons, Losses, and Love (1984). In the 22 years since its publication - thanks to indispensable help from Claire Keyes, director of the Allegheny Reproductive Health Clinic in Pittsburgh, and an outstanding friend of waiting room men - I have conducted three more survey waves and I now have answers and longitudinal data from over 3,000 males in scores of clinics coast-to-coast.
]]>Art Shostak, Ph.D., is a Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Drexel University.
Over 600,000 males annually find themselves in the waiting rooms of the nation's nearly 400 abortion clinics (about half of all abortion-seeking women are generally accompanied by a man, as the regulations require assistance on leaving after the procedure). I have been there, first in the late 1970s as a perspiring young single man accompanying my nervous lover, and ever since as an applied sociologist drawn to find out more about the guys I sat among for three hours (and thereby, more about myself).
After my own abortion involvement, I helped create the first-ever national survey of males in abortion clinic waiting rooms (an exploratory, rather than a random and scientific study) and co-authored the still only academic book on the subject - Men and Abortion: Lessons, Losses, and Love (1984). In the 22 years since its publication - thanks to indispensable help from Claire Keyes, director of the Allegheny Reproductive Health Clinic in Pittsburgh, and an outstanding friend of waiting room men - I have conducted three more survey waves and I now have answers and longitudinal data from over 3,000 males in scores of clinics coast-to-coast.
What I have found is a long-standing pattern of neglect: For example, some 65% of the guys in 2004 (69% in 1983; 73% in 1999/2000) wanted to have accompany their partner throughout the abortion - provided she first agreed, this a major reason many of the guys were there in the first place (a pledge often sought by the female). But only 23% of the clinics in 1999/2000 made this possible, and there is no reason to believe the figure in 2004 (or now!) was any higher.
In 1984 interviews, 59% said they had not discussed the abortion with anyone. While 39% expressed an interest in securing counseling and 55% would have liked a private meeting along with their partner and a counselor, only 40% of the clinics offered this - and only if staffers could squeeze it in to very tight schedules. Although the guys cool their heels for over an hour and could learn much of value during that time, none were told anything to help them prepare for the emotional roller coaster many women experience immediately after the procedure, a time when searing questions and bruising doubts may surface.
Guys expressed anxiety ("Will she be okay?"), puzzlement ("How did we ever get into this mess?") and resolve ("I never want to be here again, never!"). But while in 1983 68% of the clinics had a male-oriented pamphlet rack that might have helped some avoid being repeaters, by 1999/2000 the figure had fallen to 21%. No clinic in our 2004 sample regularly offered a family planning discussion or the like. This, despite the fact that 38% expressly wanted take-away information about birth control to ponder and share. Not surprisingly, in 2004 one in five of the waiting room guys was a repeater.
Thanks now to indispensable support from Clinic Director Claire Keys, we have launched the first-ever web site for males seeking a pro-choice discussion of men and abortion. It explains what an abortion entails, offers answers to FAQs, provide links to pro-male clinics, highlights ideas from advocacy groups (NAF, NARAL, etc.), shares articles Claire or I have written over the years, offers space for (moderated) views from site visitors, and endlessly tries to improve its value to waiting room males and related others.
We want the site to help encourage guys to seek counseling immediately on learning of their part in co-creating a pregnancy. They need an opportunity to explore what might be hard for them. To get over a loss of control. To discuss religious and spiritual thoughts. To deal with a feeling of helplessness and to define a role that helps normalize the experience.
We hope our web site will soon persuade the owners of abortion clinics (most of them men) to voluntarily offer many male-aiding services. Our case is strengthened by the fact that 51% of waiting-room males in 1999/2000 indicated the couple's choice of a provider would have been influenced by the availability of male-aiding services. Some 62% in 2004 (up from 50% in 1999/2000) signaled their willingness to help pay for male-aiding options. And these indications of support might be greater if a clinic explained its legitimate need for such financial aid.
Should clinics continue to under-serve waiting room males it might become necessary to seek state-wide laws requiring on-request educational and counseling services, as well as the option to accompany the female through the procedure and during her stay in the recovery room (only, of course, with her prior accord). The required services might include hiring at least one male counselor, providing free pamphlets, showing a DVD about the procedure on a monitor in the waiting room, offering contraceptive education, etc. Costs could be scaled to income, though possibly made less generous if the male is an abortion repeater. As well, new state laws could require insurance companies to offer females coverage that would help their male partners pay for male-aiding clinic services.
In sum, I think we should reframe the entire abortion paradigm, and recognize that two people, rather than only the female, deserve help. For if women are to live alongside the high quality of men they dream about, and if men are to measure up to their own highest ideals, reforms must be achieved in out-of-sight venues like abortion clinics. As conception is not the product of masturbation, it is not "her" abortion, it is their abortion. Abortion providers should help both parties at equal-care sites. Males should leave abortion clinic waiting rooms wiser and more adult than ever. Having learned more than before about contraception, child spacing, and abortion psychological impacts (even including regrets and mourning rituals), males should have reduced odds of ever returning to the waiting room. The sooner we help males come in from the cold of a mute and lesson-less clinic waiting room, the closer we will come to a world of ever-rarer abortions.
]]>A much longer version of this article will appear in Men and Masculinities, sometime in 2007.