The Roswell, New Mexico Abortion Storyline Is Just As Timely As Ever

Make no mistake: Roswell, New Mexico is, in several ways, a fantasy. However in the story of three humanoid aliens finding a new sense of house immediately after being abandoned on earth, and of the people they love and who love them, there really are plenty of possibilities to tell real-world stories, too.


Take the character of Isobel Evans (Lily Cowles): In the CW show’s second season, she learns that she is pregnant by her villainous ex-husband, however feels like she has few options accessible to her. She can’t go to a doctor, she reasons, because her body isn't of this world and doing so would risk her discovery. And she opts not to confide in her family member, or anyone else she is aware. Alternatively, Isobel decides to take a poison specifically designed to shut alien bodies down, despite acquiring cautionary visions from her late brother Max (Nathan Parsons) warning her against it. What results is a self-induced abortion with potentially disastrous consequences — plus a story that showrunner Carina Adly MacKenzie, who co-wrote the episode in response to the so-called “heartbeat bills” that conservative lawmakers attempted to pass in states like Georgia and Ohio, hopes will resonate with viewers in a particularly timely way.


In telling this story, Roswell, New Mexico joins at least 43 other TV shows that featured abortion storylines in 2019. Isobel’s experience incorporates a particularly rough set of barriers, albeit fantastical ones, that complicate her ability to receive medical care. In that way, she reflects the people who stay in abortion deserts, or in states that mandate restrictive waiting periods and other invasive hurdles that several individuals living paycheck-to-paycheck simply can’t afford to broach. In March alone, lawmakers in Texas, Ohio, and Iowa have tried to use the current coronavirus pandemic as cause to ban abortion care by deeming it a “elective” and “non-essential” procedure. However how can a service that has the potential to change the trajectory of someone’s life forever be defined as “non-essential?”


The Roswell, New Mexico team kept the people who might be denied choice-affirming care in mind as they worked on what would eventually become the third episode of Season 2. MTV News discussed with Adly MacKenzie and Cowles about their supernatural allegory for the issues at stake, how it feels that this episode is airing at a time once abortion access is visibly under attack In America, and science fiction’s legacy of tackling controversial topics.


MTV News: How did you and the writers determine to tell this story? 


Carina Adly MacKenzie: There wasn't a plan in place last season for Noah impregnating Isobel. This was something that was really place on Earth out of wanting to speak to what it looks like as soon as someone feels like they have to take desperate measures to save their own life, whether that's their actual physical life or the sort of life that they're choosing to have. That's the story that we're attempting to tell with Isobel. It's really about her being unable to access the care that she needs through medical professionals, and doing something very, very dangerous and very, very scary to protect her own bodily autonomy and her own firm, which has been taken from her for a very long time.


Lily was the initial phone call that I made, and she was at first a little freaked out by it. I was like, “I'm not sure that this is something I want to tackle. I'm thinking about it and then I'd like to put it in your head and visualize what you think.” She circled back to me later and was like, “Let's do it.”


Lily Cowles: I remember this moment so well. She called me and she's like, "Listen, I have an idea for Isobel and I want to run it by you because it's no small thing." And yes it knocked the wind out of me whenever she informed me. For a moment I had this resistance because I knew what it was going to take to go there as an actor and to put your character through that. Nevertheless Carina was very sensitive about it and informed me, "I want you to think about this and take some time and tell me what your thoughts are." It was really intimidating, although I knew that it was exceptionally critical. And thus I called her the next day and I mentioned, "We’ve got to do it."


MTV News: That Isobel tries to self-induce an abortion because she can't access care is an allegory in a sci-fi setting, however it has very real world parallels, and very real world stakes. One report from the Guttmacher Institute found that the variety of attempted self-induced abortions may be on the rise, likely because people feel like they have few resources or options. With that in mind, how did you draw the line between fantasy and reality?


Cowles: It is absolutely allegorical with Isobel. She's an alien, and she can't get medical help because she has a different biology. And nevertheless this is the reality that so several girls have faced in a very real way. There really are so several ladies who face this and I think that was the reason we felt we really needed to tell this story.


Adly MacKenzie: I think it's a very real story. We have Isobel taking alien poison however the metaphor is right there. It's not a leap to imagine a woman in this situation and what measures she could take. The story is about an alien who can't go to a usual hospital, however it's also about a woman who can't afford a $400 procedure, or a teenager who can't tell her parents, or someone in Texas now where abortion is being halted because it's believed an elective, non-essential surgery while in this pandemic, which could go on for months and months and months. Anybody in any of these scenarios could become desperate.


Cowles: There's a real stigma around this subject and it's such a hot-button political provide for so several people. Ultimately it's the most personalized situation that someone can be in. In my advice, it's absolutely the organization of the person that's just going through and yes it isn't something that the country needs to be commenting on.


Adly MacKenzie: We did attempt to prepare Isobel's story resemble reality. There’s a lot of blood involved and we had fight have the ability to show that on TV. We wanted to show the ugliness of what it really looks like on TV because we wanted to create ensure that we weren't telling a story that sugarcoats the experience in any way or that makes it seem like it's safe to try this at residence without medical help. Were she not in a sci-fi situation, she says, “I could be a statistic.”


Cowles: We felt an obligation to tell this story hopefully so that we might mention “you're not alone” to people who have had to go through something like this, who are facing this.


MTV News: The fact that Isobel tries to self-induce without medical supervision is critical to distinguish, because statistically, a medically-supervised abortion is one of the safest procedures there really are. How did you ensure that you were telling a story about a dangerous situation as responsibly as you could?


Cowles: We're taking on a very real story that several females face and deal with and a distribute that still feels dangerous to touch. I think the story that we're looking to tell here's that women’s bodies are their own bodies. We're investigating the implications of what occurs any time whenever you take away female autonomy. And it's not pretty.


Adly MacKenzie: One in four girls have gotten abortions in one way or another. She is doing this in a unsafe way and I think we're really clear about that in the episode and we ensure to drive house the idea that poison isn't the method, however also that it is a very real story about what occurs as soon as people get desperate.


Cowles: This is a reality that we face as a consequence of putting restrictions on female reproductive health. This is the consequence. What will happen because the people will get into situations where they have unwanted pregnancies that maybe threaten their lives, threaten their futures in some way, and so they have no possibilities to manage it because of restrictions that other people have put on them?


Adly MacKenzie: We're not telling the story for shock value. We really attempted to avoid glamorizing any aspect of it. There was a point in which I was asked if I would make the blood glittery. I was horrified by that. I hope that people visualize the ugly side of it and understand the story that we're attempting to tell.


MTV News: What was it like to work together on this episode specifically?


Adly MacKenzie: Lily is a person who puts a lot of care along with a lot of thought into her work. She comes prepared. We had a lot of conversations. I think the thing that she brought to this was fearlessness. It's a very weak story to tell. She's lying in a nightgown while folks are applying fake blood to her inner thigh and she's crying and she's attempting to get into this space of being in a lot of pain. It was a very solemn day on set and I think that Lily took it very seriously, nevertheless she approached it prepared to be fully vulnerable.


MTV News: How did you ensure that Lily was supported while in all of the filming?


Adly MacKenzie: Jeff Hunt is a director I've worked with before and who the complete cast knew pretty well. He was somebody who our cast was comfortable with. I was also on set the full time, and Deirdre, the other writer, was on set as much as she might be.


Cowles: I came into it already feeling I was in a very safe place. I think the way that Carina handled it overall, having called and invited me to picture it, it was routinely something that I felt I had a certain quantity of mention in. It wasn't like, “You're doing this so good luck and have fun.” It was very much a collaborative experience where I got to feel like I was really at the helm in a lot of ways.


Adly MacKenzie: I'm very dedicated to making sure the actors are constantly feeling safe and feeling comfortable even once they're portraying unsafe and uncomfortable situations. I think she was surrounded by a lot of love along with a lot of feminine energy. We asked her, “OK, what do you know Isobel could be wearing in this situation? How much do you know we should be seeing? How much are you comfortable with the positioning?” As soon as you're shooting those hard angles, you desire to prepare ensure that the actor has the choice. She certainly guides the situation.


MTV News: While in the moments Isobel is imagining her brother Max, she tells him that her wish to induce an abortion isn't really a matter of motherhood. Can you walk me through why you determined to include those lines?


Adly MacKenzie: It wasn't about being selfish and it's not about whether Isobel wants to be a mother. It's about having business over her body now and around choosing the way that you hope to be a parent in case you do wish to be a parent. We wanted to tell a story about choosing how and any time your life takes big turns.


Cowles: I truly believe that Isobel wants to be a mother. I think she wants to have a family member. If Noah hadn't been a psychopathic, serial-killing alien, she probably would've wanted to have kids with him. She might've been trying for a baby, nevertheless the way that her marriage turned out… Consent almost became a question for her.


Adly MacKenzie: She's reacting to something that she never really had a mention in. Right now she does have a choice, and she's making it. She's just in a situation in which making that choice isn't easy, as soon as it should be.


Cowles: Being pregnant and having a child is probably one of the most great things that a human being can do. Also it is conversely perhaps the most terrible thing that can take place to someone once it threatens their life or their future or their personhood. And I think that's what Isobel is facing with this is, “These are not the terms that I want. This isn't how I want it to be. It’s not that I don't hope to be a mother, although that I'd like to be a mother on my own terms.”


MTV News: This episode is airing concurrent to the fight to protect abortion access in states where lawmakers are trying to argue that the procedure is “non-essential.” Given that this episode was written in response to the Georgia bill that was eventually blocked, how do you feel about the continued timeliness of the issue? 


Adly MacKenzie: It's routinely under siege. The people who desire to ban abortion are usually looking for a new reason. I also was shocked Whenever I thought it was being imagined a non-essential medical service. Yet then that shock turned into, “Of fucking course, the world is falling apart now and this is what some folks are thinking about.” It is a life-saving procedure routinely, every time. Some days it's about literally saving the mother's life. Although it's also about protecting the lives that they're choosing and protecting the lives that they wish to lead.


Cowles: We reside in an age any time particularly white boys are attempting to create decisions about female bodies. It seems like something that should've been resolved a long time ago. You could determine that you would never desire to have an abortion and that is absolutely valid. Or you could need to have an abortion so you've got to absolutely be granted the ability to do that. It's sad at this point that we're still fighting this fight, yet we have to keep fighting for it because having autonomy over one's health and one's body appears to me a very generic fundamental human right.


Adly MacKenzie: It's frustrating. As soon as the heartbeat bill in Georgia didn't pass, I felt this immense sense of relief. Although what's the next thing? And there's routinely something. With the Supreme Court as it stands now, I don't know that we're going to be able to see the end of this fight in our lifetimes. It seems like there's an endless battle against girls having control over themselves and their own medical care.


MTV News: A lot of people believe that certain television shows shouldn't be political, yet several elements in Roswell, New Mexico are really political. What responsibility do you suggest the show has to wade into the more of course political waters?


Adly MacKenzie: I don't think the show is more political than our day-to-day lives are. I just think it's more political than other shows are. I think other shows avoid the politics that we face on a daily basis and we're just not doing the acrobatics to avoid it.


Cowles: It’s a responsibility to lose light onto all of the different parts of the human experience. Some of those are really not pleasant. They're ugly and they're scary and they're raw. They make you uncomfortable. It is segment of the work to define that just as much as you resemble how good it feels to be in love and to triumph over your woes. It's similarly segment of the human experience.


Adly MacKenzie: I don't necessarily think the show is there to push any agenda with the exception of humanity — ironically, because we're literally dealing with actual creatures from outer space. Nevertheless it's not about the politics, it's about the humanity. That's where we attempt to stay in our storytelling.


Sci-fi, for as long as it's existed, has been about metaphor, has been about telling human stories in a fantastical way. Anybody who's a sci-fi writer will save that they're telling you a story that's a metaphor for real human emotion. The distinction between that and what we do is that we are telling a story that's a metaphor alongside telling the story that's real life. Here, we’re telling a story about what it feels like to be a unwelcome alien on earth, along with telling a story about what it feels like to be a undocumented American in a border state. And we’re attempting to tell it with compassion as instead of spectacle.


These interviews have been edited for length.