If you still remember the loud snap of Adam whipping off a condom after having sex with Hannah in the second episode of “Girls” — followed by a full episode of Hannah repeating that she always uses condoms but is nonetheless terrified that she’ll die of AIDS — you have Caren Spruch to thank for that.
Spruch is the national director of arts and entertainment at Planned Parenthood. Her job is to help screenwriters and directors create accurate and sensitive on-screen representations of abortion and other reproductive health issues, in addition to galvanizing prominent industry figures to publicly endorse Planned Parenthood and its goals. With credits ranging from 2014’s “Obvious Child” to 2020’s “Never Rarely Sometimes Always,” this work is a niche she built for herself after starting out in the organization’s public policy department. “I thought, ‘Well, everyone says Hollywood is so liberal, but we don’t have famous celebrities speaking out,’” she says. “And I didn’t know anybody. I wasn’t celebrity-obsessed. But I became obsessed with meeting the right people, who could reach the people who needed us.”
Fifteen years ago, one of those “right people” was “Girls” creator and star Lena Dunham. “It was the best move I ever made,” Spruch says about reaching out to the rising auteur. She had seen Dunham’s 2010 film “Tiny Furniture,” and was hearing chatter about an HBO pilot she was writing about young, modern women in New York. “So I decided to write a letter. I packed up a box of shirts and swag from whatever our campaign was at the time, and I sent the box to the set. She called me the day she got it, and that was the beginning of a long relationship.”
Throughout the run of “Girls,” Spruch advised Dunham on smaller details, like that condom shot, while also helping craft larger moments, like the aftercare instructions Mimi-Rose (Gillian Jacobs) lists off to Adam (Adam Driver) in Season 4 as she surprises him with the news that she got an abortion — then pushes back on his anger about it. “So truly not stigmatizing her decision. She had an abortion and she was living her best life,” Spruch says. “I was talking to Lena all the time. We did so many projects together.”
In Dunham’s new Netflix dramedy “Too Much,” Jess (Megan Stalter) has an abortion that’s somewhat traumatic — not because of the procedure, but because of the breakup it signifies. “So we talked about how the abortion provider was portrayed, because we need nuanced portrayals of what it means to provide these services,” Spruch says. The scene is less than two minutes long, but it’s one of the series’ most affecting. When Jess wakes up from the procedure, loopy and sobbing, it’s not her partner who’s there to console her. It’s Betsy, a kind woman in blue scrubs who knows nothing about the devastating loneliness that made this abortion necessary for Jess, but holds her and understands her all the same.
At the beginning of Spruch’s career at Planned Parenthood, “I was bemoaning the abhorrent depictions of abortion, where somebody has an unintended pregnancy and they fall down the stairs,” Spruch says. “They have a miscarriage. They die. They’re evil and shamed and judged.” But those images proliferated while the right to abortion was still protected nationwide. Today, with Roe v. Wade overturned, the Americans watching more sensitive projects like “Too Much” are, legally, more vulnerable.
Spruch’s determination hasn’t wavered. “The past few years, I’ve been focusing on who gets abortions,” she says. “Not everyone who has an abortion is a young, white and single person, but that’s the majority of who we see. And that is very dangerous, because the people who are most impacted by these bans and restrictions are Black patients. Latinx patients. Indigenous. And most people who have abortions are already mothers. A lot of it is just about dispelling myths, because everyone should be able to see themselves on-screen.”
As Spruch pores over pages of handwritten notes about her goals, she points out that it’s June 24, the three-year anniversary of Roe v. Wade’s reversal. She continues discussing her work, a grin on her face. Today, at least, there’s no time for despair.
variety.com
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