Diabolical Motherhood
On June 25, 1976, three and a half years after Roe v. Wade made abortion legal in the U.S., The Omen hit theaters. Most viewers remember the high-drama deaths—by impalement, decapitation, hanging—or the creepiness of Harvey Spencer Stephens’s young Damien, or Gregory Peck’s commanding gravitas. But I always remember poor Kathy.
Katherine Thorn (Lee Remick, making the most of a fairly thin role) is the wife of Robert Thorn, an American diplomat stationed in Rome and later made ambassador to Great Britain. She’s a good woman and a loving, supportive wife. In the movie’s opening scene, as Kathy languishes offscreen in postpartum recovery, a priest tells Robert that their baby only survived for a few moments after birth. Robert is wrecked, but he’s especially concerned for his wife: “I’m afraid it will kill her,” he says. “My god, she wanted a baby so much, for such a long time.”
The priest suggests a deeply unethical solution: The hospital has another baby, born that very night, whose mother died in childbirth. Robert can present the baby as their own, and Kathy never has to know. Robert hems and haws a bit, but ultimately agrees. In intention, this is done out of love. In practice, of course, it’s an act of unimaginable betrayal.
