the law and the women


what was their problem with the law that the doctor mentioned in the conversation about homer replacing him?

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At one point they (Homer/Doctor) were discussing abortion which was illegal to an extreme in the 1940's. Homer was arguing with emotion on why he would not perform such a precedure (foreshadowing his later agreement with the doctor's comment about "better to be alive, in any situation" in the car) and the doctor was trying to explain to him that he also does not want to do this but feels he must provide for and help these women who were being butchered because they weren't ready to have a child.

The law also required those ladies to have those children who would in turn frequently give them up to an orphanage and thus leave these children to a much less opportunistic life. They were happy there, but it's all they knew.
Constant early emotional damage of wanting to be in a family and not getting the chance to.

I am not a proponent of abortion, but this movie made the absolute best arguments for it that I have ever encountered in film. Don't want to start a debate just stating the film is very capable of intelligent debate on the subject.

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my question was about his co-workers, he said they had their problems with
the law during a conversation with them.

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An early remark in the conversation had been that abortion was illegal so I assumed his remark about the law referred to that. Perhaps he also was indicating that they too were guilty of breaking the law (as he admittedly was) because they knew the abortions were being done and supported them by their silence, acceptance, or assistance.

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