Our society doesn’t appreciate commercials — there is a reason so many people pay extra on streaming services to eliminate them. This may explain why the movie theater I recently sat in to watch the newly released “Call Jane” was painfully empty.
As it was the first day it was shown in theaters, I had dutifully reserved a seat in advance, but my preparation proved pointless. It was a party of one.
It appears my empty theater experience wasn’t unique either, as early box office receipts show a worldwide opening weekend total of $258,532 — a failure by every Hollywood standard. “Call Jane” is supposed to illustrate a pre-Roe illegal abortion network, but American consumers have apparently identified that it’s just a 121-minute-long commercial for today’s abortion lobby — and they’re not buying it.
Marketed as a movie meant to normalize abortion according to director Phyllis Nagy, “Call Jane” (rated R) is the story of a fictional housewife getting involved with an illegal abortion network. More importantly, however, it is a direct reflection of the dangerous enemy we are dealing with in modern expanding illegal abortion networks — starting with the film’s acceptance of the sexist principle that mothers can never be successful.
“Call Jane” lead actress Elizabeth Banks, who plays the housewife “Joy,” may have said it boldest when she told Vanity Fair that “the only thing that can stand in the way of a woman…[going to college and having an ambitious career] is irresponsible ejaculation and the patriarchy.” Her sentiment was echoed throughout the film, most notably when one character said getting elective abortions was “life or death” for everyone — is it really that impossible for a woman to take responsibility and be a parent as well as have a successful career?
Beyond this, other ugly comparisons can be made. For instance, the illegal abortion network in this film used fake doctors or unschooled women to commit surgical abortions in a medical nightmare as they ‘trained’ to do the procedure themselves by gutting pumpkins (as though surgery is as simple and risk-free as carving a Jack-O-Lantern.) Today’s new back-alley abortion method unfortunately follows suit — except this time, it’s through Chemical Abortion pills.
A recent Washington Post article showed how unlicensed abortion advocates are sending life-ending pills through the mail to vulnerable women without any real knowledge of their pregnancy. This leads to intensely dangerous situations for women, including one woman in the article who took Chemical Abortion pills well past when the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) deems them safe — only time will tell of her future medical complications.
“Call Jane” also illustrated the abortion lobby’s overall contempt for parents, as characters in the abortion network promised to conceal minors’ abortions from their guardian, thoughtless of the implications — sound familiar? Abortion supporters today rage against including parents, particularly protesting parental notification laws, despite the fact that these measures help protect children who have become pregnant as the result of rape or who have ended up in forced prostitution, like Dr. Brook Bello did.
Another terrifying reality that abortion-seeking women face is brought up in the film when illegal abortion network boss Virginia (played by Sigourney Weaver) tells Joy about her disdain for the disreputable people who make killing pre-born children their job, saying, “The rads [the radical abortion lobby] have bigger pigs than the pigs.” Her statement is well-illustrated by the initial abortionist in the film named Dean (played by Cory Michael Smith), who was greedy and disgustingly corrupt enough to make deals that involved women taking their shirts off as compensation. Today, the abortion industry is filled with similar perversion.
The examples of this are legion (Kermit Gosnell and Ulrich Klopfer perhaps being the most famous), but Nevada abortionist Dr. Adam Levy is a particularly relevant one. He recently appeared in a Democrat-sponsored campaign ad for the midterm elections as a medical expert — but he has a frightening history of severely botching abortions (one to the point of maternal death) and being charged with the sexual assault of multiple children. If this man is the spokesperson for legal abortion, who exactly might be hiding in the shadows of illegal abortion networks?
For the few watching “Call Jane” in the theaters, surrounded by lonely seats, it is a reminder that it takes a village to both flunk a movie and win upcoming elections. If Americans are truly concerned about cracking down on the rising covert Chemical Abortion pill operations in this country — and if we care anything about women’s health, we will be — voices need to be raised together through votes at the ballot box for the protection of life.
Caroline S. Wharton is a Staff Writer & Press Strategist for Students for Life of America and Students for Life Action.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.