Guest column: ‘P-Valley’ creator calls for another show to depict abortion

“Everyone is pro-life until the baby is born,” scoffs Mercedes (Brandi Evans) as she pushes her pregnant 14-year-old daughter Terika (Azariah Carter) away from angry protesters over the only abortion. Clinic throughout Mississippi. A crowd spouting hate and critical prayers as they hold up Black Lives Matter signs in a garage that seems an ocean away for this little black girl. It is a path of hope along an unfortunate and, until recently, chosen path. On July 6, 2022, Mississippi’s only abortion clinic closed its doors following a Supreme Court ruling. Dobbsv. Jackson Women’s Health OrganizationA woman’s constitutional right to abortion is held by 50 states.

As true to life as the previous panel is, in fact, it’s a complete lie, like all art. Taken from the July 24th episode p-field Titled “Jackson”, this scene bears witness to how today’s world may soon become yesterday’s world. “Jackson” follows Mercedes, the star of The Pynk’s OG, as she guides her daughter through one of the biggest decisions of her young life. They embark on a trip from their fictional town of Chucali, in northern Mississippi, to the state capital for an appointment at a women’s clinic. Along the way, this mother and daughter weigh their options as they reopen old wounds to build a new future. Although not mentioned explicitly on the show, the obvious inspiration for the clinic was the “Pink House,” or Jackson’s Women’s Health Organization, whose real-life legal battles with the state of Mississippi led to its dismantling. Roe against Wade.

when be p-field When the writers’ room came together for a second season in late 2020, we collectively took on Nina Simone’s mantle that an artist “must reflect the times”. We founded our reality in the wake of the pandemic caused by COVID-19, a virus that also unleashed a more widespread virus of racism and police brutality that still plagues our nation.

Since season one, we’ve been looking for a way to tell the story of limited and restrictive reproductive rights in Mississippi, which was one of five states with only one abortion clinic. We felt it was our responsibility to expose the war on black women’s bodies that is being waged in this conservative state. This season, we explore this complex and highly emotional subject through the lens of a mother-daughter breakup. We learn that as a teenager, Mercedes was forced by her own mother to have Terika and relinquish custody, the source of their painful bond. Mercedes struggles to give Terika the option she was denied.

Like Terika, I’m a black girl from the south who was taught to keep my legs closed and wait until marriage to have sex. These unrealistic abstinence requirements, combined with a lack of sex education and widespread misinformation about reproductive health, lead to a devastating statistic: Mississippi has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the entire United States.

Living this American life in this body, at the intersection of race, class, and gender, can feel like a gift and a burden. The stories I carry within me are many and I am grateful that, as a storyteller, I have a platform to empathize where law and politics have failed. Inside p-field We place the audience on the flexible platforms of the strippers as they attack the pole of life, rising and falling as they try to overcome the distant ceiling imposed by society.

In “Jackson,” we put the audience in the shoes of a black girl faced with a difficult decision. We feel his heartbeat as he follows faces of anger and judgment. We hope that maybe people will understand that this is not an easy decision for any woman or girl. and still must be it is Does.

History has the ability to create compassion and care in hearts closed by politics, particularly for black and brown women who will be disproportionately affected by this legislation. As we move into this next uncertain chapter in American history, I ask more storytellers to reflect on this moment: the challenges, the truth, and the hope, because there is hope. In some ways, Ayer’s Mississippi may have been a better place for women than today’s Mississippi, but with a renewed fight we can, like Mercedes, leave space for our children to make their own decisions for their lives in Mississippi de Morning. .

Katori Hall is the creator, executive producer and showrunner of the drama Starz. p-field Won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Dramaturgy, King of hot wings. your game Tina: The Tina Turner Musical 12 Tony nominations and one win in 2020.