The Trophy Wife Who Didn't Bark

Did you notice anything interesting about the "Desperate Housewives" season finale on Sunday? Okay, it was subtle, in a very "the-dog-that-didn't-bark" sort of way, but if you think about it, the show made a subtle but extremely telling point about our society.

In case you don't watch the show, Gabrielle Solis (played by Eva Longoria) is a former model and the trophy wife of a wealthy businessman who is going to prison for illegal activities related to his work. He wants children, she doesn't. In fact, she's adamant: no babies, and that's final. No discussion. So what does the husband do? He tampers with her birth control pills behind her back, with predictable results. Gabrielle is pregnant – and very upset about it.

So what does this have to do with society, and why am I discussing it on a blog dedicated to left-wing rants? Easy. Gabrielle has been made pregnant by deception, against her will and her stated desires, and yet when she finally realizes what has happened to her it never once occurs to her that she has the option of terminating her pregnancy by having an abortion. She just blindly accepts the fact that if she does gets pregnant, by whatever means, she has no choice but to go ahead and have the baby, regardless of how she might feel about it.

And that, my friends, is how we know that the religious right has won the argument on abortion.

Think about it. When was the last time a series regular on a network TV show had an abortion? Or even contemplated one? Back in the 70s Maude on the CBS sitcom of the same name had an abortion. Erica Kane on ABC's "All My Children" terminated an unwanted pregnancy in 1971, even before Roe v. Wade. But for a character on a TV show today to have an abortion is just out of the question. Verboten. You can't even talk about it.

Contrast this with the way TV handles the topic of homosexuality. I'm not sure I could even count the number of TV shows that deal in a sympathetic way with homosexuality. "Will and Grace" is just the most obvious example, but there are plenty of others – including "Desperate Housewives." The fact is that you can portray an openly gay character on TV sympathetically with no problem. The left has won that battle.

But they have lost the battle on abortion, and the conspiracy of silence on network television on the subject is just the most obvious and telling portent of the fact that, eventually, the right is going to get their way. Roe v. Wade is going to be overturned and abortion may well be outlawed in the United States.

Gabrielle's silence on the subject of abortion speaks volumes, if you think about it. Do you want to think about what that silence says?

Tom Moran