Say what you will about Tyler Perry's For Colored Girls, but you've got to admit that he knows how to tug a heart string. It was a mixed bag for me. I absolutely hated his trite down-low/HIV storyline. Homophobia at its finest. There was TONS of victim blaming. The strengthening bonds of sisterhood were poorly developed. Ultimately, there was very little to leave the movie feeling good about. One scene that I did appreciate was the abortion scene. Think back to If These Walls Could Talk and Demi Moore's character. Perry's film features a very similar plot, except the character is an inner-city high school student whose mother is extremely religious and completely broke. She can not admit to her mother that she's been sexually active, but she can't afford the 300 dollar abortion either. She begs her sister for the money, but tells her it's for college applications. Her older sister suspects that she's pregnant, and indirectly tells her about a woman who performs abortions in her apartment. The character goes to the woman alone to get an abortion, but ends up almost dying from an infection.
What does all this mean?
While certainly the fight for the right for a person to choose what happens to their own body is important, but economic access has to be part of the conversation. Not only that, but society's one-sided obsession with women's sexual purity needs to be deconstructed. CHOICE IS NOT ENOUGH. It must be about reproductive justice for all, not just those with the privilege to afford to choose.
