The Supreme Court’s addition of Brett Kavanaugh has shifted the court’s collective ideology to the right, bringing hope to conservatives and anxiety to liberals. One issue that has remained hotly divisive in America is whether abortion is an important right reserved for women, or the murder of unborn children.
Abortion began to receive a great deal of attention in the U.S. in the latter half of the nineteenth century when states began to implement anti-abortion laws. In 1860 the American Medical Association sought to outlaw abortion altogether. The sexual revolution and the explosion of birth control options, including “the pill” in the early 1960s, drove the collective American conscience leftward. In 1972 the Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade made abortion legal during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. For some this was a welcome step in the perceived march of human history in the direction of individual freedom. For others the decision was as heinous as Germany’s “Final solution”. The sharp divide has not been settled. Perhaps it will never be settled on this earth.
“The Cider House Rules” is a novel written by American author, John Irving, and published in 1985. It was adapted into a movie of the same name in 1999. Irving’s story is overtly about a young man maturing and coming to terms with his purpose in life during the 1940s in rural Maine. In his (Homer Wells) case, the process is closely tied to the issue of abortion. The following article follows the story of Homer Wells, as presented in the movie, and considers with Irving the pros and cons of abortion.
Homer began his life as an unwanted child, left on the doorsteps of St. Cloud’s Orphanage in rural Maine. The orphanage where Homer was raised was headed by Dr. Wilbur Larch, who practiced obstetrics, performed illegal abortions, and who served as a kindly surrogate father to the orphaned children.
Homer was adopted two different times but the adoptions didn’t work out, for one reason or another. So Homer, who was a sharp-minded child, became the focus of Dr. Larch’s idea that he should prepare an eventual replacement for himself as doctor and head of the orphanage. Thus, Homer became a skilled practitioner of medicine and obstetrics, except for actually performing abortions. Homer seemed reconciled to Dr. Larch’s views about abortion, but he was unable to embrace those convictions himself.
One day Dr. Larch teases Homer about his unwillingness to provide the full range of obstetric services. He points out that no one would adopt him or his friend, Buster, who was also well past the cute stage, so attractive to prospective parents. Homer responds, “Look at it this way. Buster and I are sitting here with you.” “Happy to be alive under any circumstances. Is that your point?” “Happy to be alive. Yeah, I guess so.”
Subsequently, Candy Kendall and her boyfriend, Wally Worthington, enter are the story when they show up at the orphanage seeking an abortion. The abortion takes place routinely and the young couple is able to return home, successful in hiding the pregnancy from their families.
Homer, pondering his future, has decided that, because he didn’t have proper schooling and was not medically certified, and possibly because he didn’t want to perform abortions, he would strike out in the world to pursue a different vocation. Homer leaves the orphanage with Candy and Wally, and takes a job working at an apple orchard owned by Wally’s mom. There, Homer finds himself working with an African American itinerant crew, bunking in a building known as “the cider house.” Wally is called back to the war and, for much of the subsequent story, remains out of the picture.
The cider house plays an important metaphoric role in the story. The metaphor is established primarily around a simple piece of paper tacked to the cider house wall that lists the cider house rules. None of the workers can read, so they are not even aware there are rules for the cider house. Homer’s arrival changes that when he’s asked to read them out loud. Homer starts to read the list but doesn’t get far. Arthur Rose, crew chief, halts the reading by pointing out, “We didn’t write ‘em. I don’t see no need to read ‘em.”
With Wally out of the picture, the relationship between Homer and Candy progresses to the point where they become lovers. A winter passes. Mr. Rose and his crew, who had gone south, return for apple picking season. It soon becomes apparent to the crew that Mr. Rose has gotten his daughter, Rose (Rose Rose) pregnant. Homer confronts Mr. Rose, scolding him for having sex with his daughter. With apparent conviction Mr. Rose responds, “I would never do anything to hurt my daughter.” At this point Homer lays out what Mr. Rose has not recognized: “Rose is pregnant.” Mr. Rose is stunned.
Rose’s crisis becomes the climax of the story. Homer understands Rose’s desperation. She says, “What am I going to do with a child.” She also implies that she will attempt an abortion on herself, given that she has no other options. Homer suggests that she go to St. Clouds for proper medical attention but, apparently, Mr. Rose will not permit her to leave. Candy compounds the pressure on Homer by pleading for him to take some action. Homer makes the fateful decision and lets the others know he can and will perform the abortion if they will permit him to. Irving has made his case: there are times when abortion is necessary.
Mr. Rose insists on being present during the operation. This seems to be the beginning of his self-imposed penance. Homer performs the abortion calmly and expertly; the abortion is a success. Mr. Rose cannot shake his guilt and depression. He is as disabled by the operation as Rose is.
A couple days later, Homer enters the cider house to find Mr. Rose, still on his bunk, bleeding badly from a stomach wound. Mr. Rose explains that Rose has run away. “I was only trying to touch her hand one last time. She thought I was trying to stop her. She cut me good, Homer. She’s good with that knife,” he says with a touch of admiration. “I’m going to die now, Homer. I made sure of that. I took that knife and stirred it around some. You make sure you tell ‘em it was me that killed myself. I did it with my own hand. Promise me, Homer.”
Shortly after this event we learn that Wally, who has been missing and presumed dead, has been rescued. It turns out he had walked away from his plane crash over China but had not escaped the brutal mosquito. He had contracted encephalitis B, which, among other serious issues, had paralyzed him from the waist down. Candy and Homer have a heart-to-heart talk before Wally returns. Candy decides she must return to Wally. She loves Homer but cannot face rejecting Wally, particularly in light of his disability and the resulting need for her. Homer understands but is deeply hurt. Wally returns home. We last see Candy looking away from Wally, in Homer’s direction, fear and doubt in her eyes.
Here it is time to look again at the cider house rules, but the metaphoric rules rather than the literal ones. What has come of those who decided that, since they were the ones living in the “cider house” they should write the rules?
Mr. Rose was convinced that he would never hurt his daughter. (If he hadn’t gotten her pregnant, would his actions have hurt her?) As it turns out, he did get her pregnant, and he did participate in the abortion of their child. He filled his daughter with so much fear and anger that she determined to run away. She didn’t hesitate to stab him in order to make that escape. She did not recognize the shame in her father and that, combined with her anger, was enough to drive him to suicide. Perhaps they never would have reconciled. His death made that a certainty. Irving suggests that Rose’s abortion was necessary under the circumstances, but the aftermath is so devastating, it’s almost as if he can’t believe his own conclusion. Was the abortion truly necessary? Did the abortion give relief to those who participated in it?
Homer had convinced himself it was okay to have an affair with his friend’s girlfriend. This worked well enough in the short term but when Wally returned, Candy left Homer. Homer is shattered.
Candy and Wally had participated together in their own abortion. Their action seemed inconsequential at the time when it took place. But when Wally comes back from the war a paraplegic there is a strong possibility that he will never be capable of sexual relations. As such, Wally and Candy may never enjoy sexual pleasure again, not to mention that they also might be incapable of having children. The thought that they at one time had produced a child becomes a haunting and cruel memory. We can recall Candy’s statement at the time of her abortion, “I would really like to have a baby one day.” And the nurse’s response, “Oh, you can have as many as you want.” Irving, again, illustrates how abortion can result in brutal consequences for the living.
When one looks at the literal cider house rules, they can be seen as condescending and an arrogant imposition by those who live without understanding of the cider house. Alternately, the rules can be seen as fairly common sense in design, intended to protect both the cider house and those who live in it.
Figuratively the story insists that we consider the cider house rules of life. Who sets the rules? Society at large? God? Mr. Rose’s assertion that those who live in the cider house should write the cider house rules resonates with the viewer. (No one knows what’s happening here to me. I have to make the decisions about how I will live my life. If there are consequences, that’s my problem.) We all think this way to one degree or another. But we also must face the fact of our limited knowledge and experience (no matter how old we are). Our particular knowledges, compared with the total of all knowledge, is miniscule. Our experiences are limited. Those who live in the cider house should, at a minimum, wrestle with the meaning and implications of the cider house rules.
News comes to Homer that Dr. Larch has died from an accidental overdose of ether, a substance to which he has been addicted for years. Homer returns to the orphanage to learn that Dr. Larch has created counterfeit medical credentials for him, and has tricked the orphanage’s board into appointing Homer as Dr. Larch’s successor.
The last major event of the movie is the reaction of the orphaned children to Homer’s return. They are positively giddy, dancing with joy, jumping all over Homer and each other. Over the next few days it becomes clear to Homer and to everyone else that he will stay. The relief and joy among the children is not verbalized, and perhaps they are not fully aware of what they are feeling, but the depth of it is unmistakable. What Homer can’t miss, and what we, too, are intended to not miss, is that each of the orphans is fully human, unique, and wonderful. They each long to be loved and cared for, especially by parents. In the absence of natural or adoptive parents, Homer has been selected to fill the void. The “calling” is unmistakable; clearly, Homer has been made, not to pick apples but to be an obstetrician and a surrogate father to the orphans of St. Cloud’s.
Apparently, John Irving was openly pro-choice. The trajectory of the movie serves to make Dr. Larch’s point that abortion is a service of mercy. Homer’s resistance to the idea collapses when he comes face-to-face with a pregnancy that is tragic and personal. His performance of the abortion represent a conversion, sorts.
But does it, really? The movie does not specify whether he agrees to continue performing abortions. His previous qualms, which had to do with the value of life, remain in place. His reunion with the orphans would have only reinforced this concern. He had performed the abortion, perhaps out of a deep moral conviction. But, having seen the fallout from the abortion, might this not give him more cause to doubt its benefits?
What comes of Homer is speculation. Irving implies he has completed his maturation process and become sympathetic to the idea that abortions are sometimes necessary. But if The Cider House Rules is fundamentally an argument for the abortion option, it fails badly. Yes, it illustrates that pregnancies can be the product of horrible evils. And it illustrates that abortions undertaken by untrained physicians can result in grave injuries or even death to the mothers. But Irving also illustrates, perhaps unwittingly, that perfectly performed abortions can end tragically for the people left behind, as well. Are these wounds as great as the wounds of those who do not have access to legal, medically supervised abortions? That’s a hard question, perhaps too difficult to measure, but important enough that serious research and contemplation of the question are warranted.
Unwanted pregnancies are a big problem for people, whether abortions are legal or illegal. But the big question about abortion, and it is a question that Irving certainly hints at, is whether the unborn are human and have rights. Homer’s initial resistance to abortion seems to have its origins in this concern. The reality of the living orphans powerfully underscores the concern at the end of the movie.
Dogmatic feminists, sexual libertines, and abortion millers have vested interests in the argument that a fetus is not a child. But science demonstrates otherwise. (See the article, “Abortion”, for more on this.)
Between 1970 and 2000 there were more than 40 million abortions performed in the U.S. In 1960 the ratio of reported abortions to live births in the U.S. was .01%. In 1970 that ratio jumped to 5.19%. In 1980 the ratio rocketed to 43.02%. That figure remained fairly steady through the 80s and has drifted downward ever since. It seems that more Americans are being convinced of the evil of abortion, though there are other factors, such as reduced casual sex among the young, and greater access to birth control options, including the use of abortifacients. Still, in 2015, there were 638,00 abortions performed in the U.S. American opinion on the issue, is about as unsteady as a waffle can get.
Unwanted pregnancies are certainly tragic, but the “solution” of killing the unborn is not an acceptable answer. We can’t ask the unborn whether they would like to be born but if we could, what do you think they would answer? Doing unto others begins with the unborn. We cannot expect justice for ourselves if we are unwilling to extend justice to everyone.
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