The Washington Post's Ann Hornaday on Sunday examined the recent films "Waitress" and "Knocked Up," both of which "choose not to deal" with the subject of abortion. According to Hornaday, the films are "predicated on unplanned pregnancies and both confect ... reasons for their female protagonists to carry their unwanted babies to term."

Although both female characters "have their reasons" for choosing to carry their pregnancies to term, in "neither movie is the choice portrayed as just that -- an explicit choice," Hornaday writes. This setup has "some viewers" -- particularly women who "came of age" after Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that effectively barred state abortion bans --"wondering just what world these movies are living in," according to Hornaday. Jennifer Merin, president of the Alliance of Women Film Journalists and a New York Press film writer, said it is "shocking that the subject of abortion as a choice has been so eliminated from the discussion." She adds that films are "always afraid of anything deemed too controversial. They think that if they talk about abortion, these women will not be liked by the people they perceive as being the majority."

In "today's climate of culture wars and self-censoring, it seems impossible that a movie could be so explicit about an issue that, while undoubtedly contested, has enjoyed roughly steady levels of support over the years," Hornaday writes, adding that the two movies "choose to skirt what for most people is a vexingly complex personal and political issue" (Hornaday, Washington Post, 7/15).