The Abortion Decision on "Downton Abbey"

Earlier this year, the PBS television channel began rebroadcasting the entire Downton Abbey series, which originally was broadcast during the six years 2010-2015. I had not watched the series, so I took advantage of my opportunity to watch it now. Now I am watching the fifth year of the six-year series.

The Wikipedia article about the series summarizes it as follows:

The series, set in the fictional Yorkshire country estate of Downton Abbey between 1912 and 1926, depicts the lives of the aristocratic Crawley family and their domestic servants in the post-Edwardian era — with the great events in history having an effect on their lives and on the British social hierarchy. Events depicted throughout the series include ...

* news of the sinking of the Titanic in the first series;

* the outbreak of the First World War, the Spanish influenza pandemic, and the Marconi scandal in the second series;

* the Irish War of Independence leading to the formation of the Irish Free State in the third series;

* the Teapot Dome scandal in the fourth series;

* the British general election of 1923, the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, and the Beer Hall Putsch in the fifth series.

* The sixth and final series introduces the rise of the working class during the interwar period and hints at the eventual decline of the British aristocracy.

The Crawley family has three daughters, Mary, Edith and Sybil.

(left to right) Edith, Mary and Sybil Crawley 

In the series' fourth year (1922-2923), the middle daughter Edith becomes involved in a love affair with a magazine editor named Michael Gregson. He is married, but his wife has been confined to an insane asylum for many years. In order to divorce that wife and then marry Edith, Michael moves to Germany for a while in order to become a German citizen, where the laws would allow him to divorce his insane wife.

Shortly after he arrives in Germany, however, Michael disappears. Edith cannot find out what happened to him, but it seems that he might have been killed as an innocent bystander during the constant conflicts between Germany's Nazis and Communists.

Meanwhile, while Michael is disappeared for a few months, Edith finds that she is pregnant from her love affair with Michael. Because of her aristocratic family's social status, she must conceal her pregnancy in order to avoid a horrible social scandal. Eventually, she decides to get an illegal abortion. Edith confides in he Aunt Rosamund, who accompanies her to an abortionist's office.

While she is in the abortionist's office, however, she changes her mind and leaves. Later she travels with her aunt to Switzerland, ostensibly to improve their French languages. The real purpose for the trip, however, is for Edith to give birth secretly. Then she will return to England and give the baby to a local farmer family to raise for her.

Here are scenes from the abortion subplot.

I am enjoying this series. If you have not watched it but get an opportunity to do so, I guarantee that you too with enjoy it.