Science fiction is often a genre where readers can find pro-life values within the narrative. Sometimes it is accidental, like in the Netflix film “I Am Mother,” or intentional, like in the Philip K. Dick short story “The Pre-Persons.”
The 1972 sci-fi novel, “Roadside Picnic,” written by brothers Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, is an unusual place to find a life-affirming message. Considered one of the greatest novels in the genre to come out of the Soviet Union, it won many accolades in the 1970s, resulting in a film and a video game adaptation.
The book takes place after the “Visitation,” an event where humanity found six “zones” that had been opened by extraterrestrials. Inside, humans found strange technology, fauna, and materials. Only scientists approved by the United Nations were allowed to enter, but bounty hunters known as Stalkers went in and sold materials on the black market.
The protagonist, Redrick “Red” Schuhart, is a Stalker who has been imprisoned once before, but agrees to take a scientist friend inside the zones. Later, after making a hasty retreat from police who are looking for Stalkers, he goes home to his girlfriend, Guta.
Guta weeps, explaining that she is pregnant with his child. She tells Red that her friends and family, including her own mother, are pressuring her to get an abortion. They cite his status as an ex-con and a Stalker, saying that his presence in the zones could have dangerous side effects on the child.
Guta denounces them and the idea of abortion, saying she plans to keep the baby and raise him or her, even if Red abandons them.
In the following chapter, which takes place years after these events, Red has married Guta and they are raising their child together, affectionately nicknaming her the “Monkey” for her habit of climbing into their laps. It is made clear that Red and Guta both adore their daughter, with Red even building an “unauthorized” swing set in a nearby park for their daughter to use.
There are further developments in the plot that follow Red — by no means a perfect protagonist — and his career as a Stalker, but the abortion sequence stands out, especially later when their daughter does face challenges in the final act of the novel.
While the events in the novel do not take place in Russia, it is widely known that during the time the novel was authored, the Soviet Union had made abortion legal with the 1955 “Repeal of the Prohibition of Abortions.” It is possible that the authors were attempting to avoid the heavy censorship laws at the time, and therefore ensured that the novel’s setting took place in a location outside of Russia. For novelists writing during that time period and in that part of the world, it was a bold stance for them to take, offering an emotional repudiation of abortion in the face of a tyrannical regime.
While some may claim that it is the woman, Guta, who is declaring that it is “her choice,” Guta’s character never appeals to that flawed logic. She openly denounces abortion and the conspiracy theories she mentions surrounding the children of Stalkers. She is willing to go against her family and even Red if it means she can keep her preborn baby and allow the child to have a loving home.
“Roadside Picnic” is highly acclaimed and praised for its compelling story and literary impact on the science fiction genre. However, little to no commentary has been made — either denouncing or celebrating — the author’s blunt and bold take on abortion.
Sci-fi is a beloved genre that shows us the art of the possible, including how a single life can go on the greatest adventure and achieve the highest of goals. Abortion is the antithesis of this.
