Greenblatt’s comments came during a Television Critics Association panel this past weekend as he was explaining why NBC refused to air an ad for Obvious Child. According to the Hollywood Reporter, he said that the network doesn’t have an “iron-clad policy” about whether the word is allowed and that this particular decision was left up to the sales team:
“The sales group chose the path of least resistance. They chose the ad that did not have [the word abortion in] it.”
“I don’t know that it’s been off-limits, but I think it’s one of those hot-button issues that people are still afraid of for obvious reasons,” he added. NBC Entertainment president Jennifer Salke said, “We would not avoid the issue but would see that it is handled appropriately.”
But back to Party of Five (a sentence I never thought I’d write). During season two, Julia finds out she’s pregnant and tells her older brother Charlie (played by Matthew Fox). He shares with her his story about his college girlfriend having an abortion, though her other brother Bailey’s girlfriend Sarah tells Julia if her mom had had an abortion, she wouldn’t be born. Julia plans to go get one, but has a miscarriage before she can. Back then, Greenblatt said the writers wanted Julia to actually go through with it:
“It was a real fight internally whether or not we could tell that story, and she lost the baby sort of on the way to get the abortion,” Greenblatt continued, putting air quotes around the word lost. “I thought [that was] a real cop-out. And that was 20 years ago. I don’t think we cop out like that anymore. But I still think writers and producers are nervous about it because it really does divide people.”
So the writers and producers are nervous about writing about abortion because it divides people or because they know their networks are worried that it divides people?