From Dirty Dancing to GLOW: How abortion on screen has changed

Revolutionary Road (2008). Still image via Dreamworks Pictures

Revolutionary Road (2008)

In Revolutionary Road, Frank and April Wheeler have grown discomfited with their suburban Connecticut lifestyle. The film takes place in the late 1950s and is typical of American culture at that time. Frank works long hours at a job he hates and April is a failed actress turned housewife. Together, they have two children.

In an attempt to escape the tedium and redundancy of their lives, April and Frank hatch a plan to move to Paris together and live a more exciting, fulfilling life. However, when April gets pregnant for a third time and Frank is offered a promotion, Paris is put on the backburner. As all of these events are occurring, the audience also learns that Frank and April have both cheated on each other. Their marriage is loveless, though it was not always that way.

Frank uses April’s pregnancy as an excuse to accept his promotion, although she tells him she wants to have an abortion. The ensuing argument rapidly turns violent, as do other altercations, with April eventually leaving their home after a particularly bad fight. She returns home the next morning, makes breakfast, sends Frank off to work and then attempts a DIY abortion.

April employs vacuum aspiration, which proves fatal, and Frank finds her bleeding to death in their home. Revolutionary Road depicts the type of dangerous, at-home abortion that was often a person’s only choice prior to Roe v. Wade in the U.S.