I’m a bit of a latecomer to the Walking
Dead party. I started watching it a few weeks ago, and for a while it
was my latest Netflix binge. I stopped watching lately, though, and I want to
talk about why.
[NOTE: Spoilers below.]
So in case you’ve never watched the show, the
setting is a post-zombiepocalypse wasteland. The dead are everywhere—and they
have a serious craving for human flesh. Non-zombie humans stay alive by sticking together in small groups and moving from safe spot to
safe spot—no place stays safe forever.
So in this extremely unstable, dangerous
existence, one of the main characters, Lori, gets pregnant. In a world where
there are no safe havens, where zombies haunt the woods, towns, houses and
roads, and where even other healthy humans aren’t always trustworthy, pregnancy
doesn’t just seem like a bad idea. It seems suicidal. When Lori gets her hands on some RU-486—the abortion pill—it seemed like a smart
choice to me.
Then she takes the pill—and immediately makes
herself throw up. Watching that, I couldn’t help but think—what? Even in a
show about an apocalyptic zombie wasteland, we can’t show abortion as a totally
sensible decision?
