The baby missing from today’s television storylines

As a fan of police procedurals, I recently began watching the old series CSI: Miami. An episode from Season 1 entitled “Ashes to Ashes” left me awestruck with its handling of a delicate case.

A young woman is found murdered in her car, and as the search for her killer begins, detectives discover that she was seven weeks pregnant. Hoping to determine paternity to possibly catch their killer, the investigators decide to do DNA testing on the baby girl.

And that’s where it becomes sad but beautiful.

The medical examiner carefully removes the baby and reverently places her in a petri dish. Horatio, the main investigator, holds the dish and, looking inside, asks rhetorically, “Not just skin cells, is it…?”

Yet the affirmation of life goes even further, as he then puts the dish under a microscope. The camera zooms in on the baby, and a somber violin piece plays in the background as the characters solemnly look upon her lifeless body.

They know this is a tiny human being, not a blob of tissue.

That particular episode aired in 2002. How far we have fallen in less than a quarter-century.

The invisible baby

Portrayals such as this on network TV shows are becoming rare as our society shifts toward depicting what the mom wants instead of the reality that a brand-new human being is created the moment the sperm fertilizes the egg.

Indeed, on a 2011 episode of Grey’s Anatomy, one of the main characters had an abortion because she simply did not want to continue being a mother and wanted to focus on her career. Sadly, abortion advocates were excited about the murder of this child. One feminist wrote, “It’s refreshing to say the least.”

There’s nothing sicker than cheering for the death of a child.

Today, research shows that the number of programs that portray abortion in a positive light has increased. In fact, many of these shows are marketed to young people. From approximately 2017 to 2022, a researcher named Steph Herold “studied portrayals of abortion in television and film as part of the Abortion Onscreen initiative.” In an interview with the 19^th—“an independent, nonprofit newsroom reporting on gender, politics, policy and power”—Herold said, “Over the past five years in particular, every year we have seen an increase in abortion plotlines. In 2021, there were 47. The year before that, there were 40, and it was close to 30 the year before that.”

She continued, “One thing that really struck me this year [2022] was that for the first time, we saw about one-third of TV shows depict barriers to abortion access, whether it was physical distance to a clinic and showing a character having to drive really far or having a character who was having to figure out how to come up with the money to cover the cost of abortion.”

Shows that depict these scenarios are trying to manipulate the minds of young people as they instill the belief that babies are a burden, that killing them comes down to “choice,” that they are somehow less than human because they are small and reside in the mother’s body, and even that fathers don’t matter.

Beware of media lies

Writers and producers of TV shows have always tried to push the limits as to what is acceptable and what people allow into their homes. In late 1972, in a two-part episode of Maude, Maude had an abortion. Yet moral courage (or fear of backlash) was stronger at the time, as more than 30 local TV stations refused to air it.

If only stations had that kind of moral courage today. Instead, the opposite is true. Morality on shows is rare. And anyone who tells the truth about abortion is considered a “right-wing nut” or a “Jesus freak.” Rarely do people say, “Wow, that person is teaching the correct science!”

As pro-lifers, we must be the ones to exhibit that moral courage as we tell the truth about abortion. Though we must speak gently and with compassion, we must also speak with conviction as we tell moms that they and their babies matter, that there is help for them, that adoption is a loving option, that abortion does result in regrets (even if it’s five, 10, 20, or 30 years later), that the abortion pill is dangerous to the mom as well, and that pro-life people DO care about both the mom and baby.

That’s why there are more than 2,700 pregnancy help centers around the country. These places offer assistance such as diapers, formula, toys, car seats, help with bills, job training, and even shelter. They do this out of love.

Teach the truth

As pro-life people and parents, we must take responsibility for changing the pro-abortion narrative. It’s crucial to pay attention to the media that our kids watch and follow, and we must regularly dialogue with them about what is true and not true, for if we do not form their consciences, the media sure will. This is the same media that wants young people to think that abortion is healthcare, that “bodily autonomy” is paramount, and that women cannot be successful if they have a child.

In other words: lies.

Abortion is not healthcare. Abortion is the killing of a tiny and vulnerable baby, often in a very painful way.

In pondering the influence of media, we can’t help but wonder: Why did CSI: Miami show that seven-week-old fetus? As you can imagine, in a 47-minute episode, every scene and every interaction counts. Every image is intentional. Nothing is superfluous. So it must have been important.

Quite simply, I think they showed that baby because the producers or directors understood the sanctity of life and wanted to affirm the reality that a preborn baby is a human being. A fetus is merely a stage of life, as are infant, toddler, teenager, and so on. And there’s beauty in that tiny developing child.

This beauty is something we must show—through our words and our actions—to all around us, for when we take away the beauty of life, all we have is ugliness and hate. And that’s exactly what the pro-abortion movement wants, because when all you have left is hate and ugliness, it’s much easier to convince people that killing a child is a good thing.

Thus, while the baby may be missing from today’s storylines, she does not have to be missing from the real world. It’s incumbent on all of us to give her a voice: Speak of the sanctity of her life and teach not only your children but your friends and neighbors the truth that a preborn baby is a beloved human being worthy of protection and that there is never any justification for taking her life.

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