In a Very Special Issue of Dark Horse‘s Buffy the Vampire Slayer comic, the titular ass-kicker makes a very serious decision about her future: she considers having an abortion. Is this proving to be an easy decision for her? Of course it isn’t. And this plotline is a good look at everything Twilight got wrong in Breaking Dawn, when Bella refused to end a pregnancy that was literally killing her, but then it all turned out okay in the end, because of vampire magic. Yeah. Buffy knows that’s not real, and that there are actual consequences to consider when this happens. SPOILERS after the jump.
Something that always seems to be missing from the abortion debate is a rather key element: the woman who is pregnant. People who oppose abortion believe that the health of the unborn child comes first, and many think that women think nothing of the fetus growing inside of them and come to the decision to end their pregnancies as easily as they’d get rid of a pair of shoes.
We all know this is very, very far from the truth. And that’s something that Buffy ponders in Season 9, issue #6 in the comic continuation of the series. For one thing, she is uncertain of the father, but is leaning towards Spike. But as she says in the panel below, if she can’t even pull herself together enough to figure that out, then that’s just one reason she shouldn’t become a mother right now.
However, this was not the whole story in issue #6. She also speaks to Robin, whose mother Nikki was another Slayer. And when Nikki found herself pregnant, she made the decision to raise her baby. And, as Robin points out in the panel up top, he wouldn’t be here today, sitting in front of Buffy as a friend, if not for that decision.
This is such an important part of this story. Many of the people who subscribe to the “baby-killer” myth of abortion do not consider that women weigh their options repeatedly, and it is gut-wrenching, heartbreaking, and not at all easy. Imagine the added emotional layers of a woman impregnated after being raped. But many don’t seem to think the woman’s feelings are a factor in this.
And that’s what is wrong with Bella’s pregnancy in Twilight: Breaking Dawn. Sure, she chooses to continue her pregnancy. This was her decision, as she told Edward when he asked her to get an abortion, and she was sticking with it. But was she considering her own health? Clearly not. Was she considering the fact that this demon baby inside of her was actually, physically killing her? No — what Stephanie Meyer did was tear Bella apart from the inside, repair her with vampire magic when she was near death after the gruesome birth, and then it was all okay in the end. In other words: “See? It all turned out okay! We fixed you! And now you have a baby and you’ll be with Edward forever!”
tl;dr — What Buffy goes through, despite the supernatural aspect of her life, is what most women go through when they consider abortion. What Bella goes through is what it seems anti-choice people think might happen. In their dreams.
(via Bleeding Cool)
Published: Feb 8, 2012 11:13 am