Less Than a Choice

Stephanie Daley reveals the fallout from an unwanted pregnancy.

By Caroline Hagood

Stephanie Daley, a film that raises difficult questions about pregnancy, was released just two days after the Supreme Court ruled in Gonzales v. Carhart to uphold the Partial-Birth Abortion Act. The Court obliterated decades-old protections for women’s mental and physical health, and set a dangerous precedent, by ruling that states can deny a woman the right to choose some abortion procedures unless she is at risk of death. But even before the Carhart decision, American women lived in a landscape of limited reproductive choices. 87 percent of U.S. counties, and 97 percent of rural counties, have no abortion provider. Stephanie Daley presents a nightmarish vision of what can happen when a young woman feels she has no options.

The film tells the fictional story of a 16-year-old girl (played by Amber Tamblyn) accused of killing her newborn child on a high school ski trip, a crime for which the media distastefully dubs her the “Ski Mom.” Stephanie won’t take a plea bargain, claiming she didn’t know she was pregnant and the baby was stillborn. Lydie Crane (Tilda Swinton), a pregnant forensic psychologist, is assigned to Stephanie’s case; her own previous pregnancy resulted in a stillbirth three months earlier. It’s not surprising that Stephanie’s plight becomes intertwined with Lydie’s maternal desires, and director Hilary Brougher uses the tension between these characters to great dramatic effect.

Through working with Stephanie, Lydie gains insight into her own identity as a woman and mother. With graceful use of close-ups, dialogue, and flashback, the film traces the roots of its two main characters’ predicaments to their haunted present. The film enters the private realms of women’s struggles in our society. Lydie is dealing with doubts about her husband’s fidelity while Stephanie is faced with a crumbling family.

"Choice"—as defined by second wave feminism—is not a concept readily available to Stephanie, since both having a baby and having an abortion would stigmatize her within her community. Lydie determines that Stephanie was aware she was pregnant and had the resources to deal with it. But as viewers, we are meant to understand that Lydie’s assessment doesn’t take Stephanie’s environment into account. Stephanie’s world is one in which her health class balks at the idea of premarital sex. When students at her high school discuss The Scarlet Letter, Satin (Caitlin Van Zandt as the local outcast, whose greatest sin seems to be having a mind of her own) raises her hand and observes that it’s unjust that the priest is revered for ruining a woman’s life. The teacher maniacally responds that great literature is only about Man and God. This is the kind of environment that could cause a young girl to hide her “sin” for fear of being forever branded.

The film doesn’t shy away from examining personhood, an issue central to current abortion debates. Lydie appears to be plagued by guilt concerning her lost baby. She notes that at 23 weeks her fetus was considered a stillborn child rather than a miscarried fetus and she feels that she should have given it a funeral service.

What makes this film remarkable is its candid portrayal of female grief and suffering. Swinton and Tamblyn cover a broad emotional range. There is a primitive bravery to Stephanie giving birth in a bathroom stall on the ski trip; her silent face is a labyrinth of pain as gossipy girls clomp in and out of the bathroom in ski boots. Lydie is equally heart wrenching; her face doesn’t so much register emotions as become them. Director Hillary Brougher deftly avoids the drudgery of the "after school special," elevating her subject matter to a profound meditation on motherhood—both willing and unwilling.

Stephanie Daley is not merely a vehicle for a political message. Abortion is a highly charged issue, but the film forces the viewer to consider what kind of life an unwanted child leads and the horrifying ramifications of bringing a child into a world without choice. The film raises, a crucial question for the viewer to ponder in light of the recent Supreme Court decision: How does one define what grows within a woman’s body, and under whose jurisdiction does it fall?

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