“True Blood” creator Alan Ball has a new project in the works called “Wichita.” That, of course, had been what the Tom Cruise flick “Knight and Day” had once been tentatively titled. This “Wichita” is a far different drama.
The Hollywood Reporter says Ball will executive produce the HBO show that’s based on the life of abortion provider George Tiller. The Reporter describes “Wichita” as “an hourlong drama about a Kansas surgeon who inadvertently becomes the focal point of a contemporary political, cultural and ethical war.” Ball is developing the show with Devin Friedman, who wrote a 2010 GQ story about Tiller titled “Savior vs. Savior.”
I read the Friedman piece to confirm what seemed obvious, that Wichitawill be friendly toward abortion. It was an interesting read, albeit indeed slanted pro-abortion, about the day Scott Roeder murdered Tiller. Friedman delved a bit into both their histories, frankly describing Tiller in spots, for instance:
George Tiller had been difficult to work with. He could be vain. He wore a floor-length mink coat sometimes. He was never mean, but – he was a fan of Star Trek – he could seem slightly Vulcan, confused by certain human characteristics but also fascinated by them. For a while there was a sign in his office that read GOLDEN RULE: THE ONE WITH THE GOLD MAKES THE RULES, and he didn’t consider how that might seem, a man who made his income by providing abortions. He was demanding and unforgiving of mistakes. It was worse when he was still drinking. He was more temperamental and unreliable.
Elsewhere Friedman described Tiller as “compassionate” and battling anger against pro-lifers by “struggling to listen to his better angels.”
In his article Friedman only described late-term abortions for “women whose health was at risk if the pregnancies were to be carried out” and abortions for “women who’d discovered that the fetus was so compromised, malformed, that it could not survive outside the womb without extraordinary medical intervention.” There was no mention of Tiller’s late-term rodeo, prom, or rock concert abortions, or his late-term abortions of underage girls.
So I expect Wichita will portray the lead character as flawed but likeable and the abortions he commits, the mothers, and reasons for abortions, sympathetically.
There can be no other reason Hollywood would take this topic on other than to persuade the culture in abortion’s favor.
