Vera Drake (2004) and The Cider House Rules (1999): the Abortion in the Cinema and its Use in teaching

Abstract

Vera Drake (2004) by Mike Leigh and The Cider House Rules (1999) by Lasse Hallström portray the voluntary interruption of pregnancy and the circumstances surrounding it in a total of ten abortions and one childbirth. Vera Drake shows us a woman of lower-middle class who “helps young girls” to end to unwanted pregnancies, without accepting money in exchange. Her secret is discovered when one of the young girls on whom Vera practices an abortion undergoes complications and Vera is caught. The Cider House Rules narrates the history of Homer Wells, a young man who is born and grows up in an orphanage where Dr Larch teaches to him in midwifery and to carry out abortions. One day Homer feels the need to experience his own wishes and desires, outside the orphanage, and begins a trip that will take him to other realities that will eventually lead to him to reconsider his position against abortion. Both films offer useful material to study clinical, ethical, social and demographic aspects regarding abortion in the contexts of medicine, nursing and midwifery.