Several recent news items have commented on and examined several movies and other pop-culture artifacts from 2007 where characters chose life instead of abortion.

Rick Santorum earlier this month had an op-ed in The Philadelphia Inquierer:

If art is a reflection of our culture, our culture – and particularly our youth culture – is awaking to the reality of life in the womb. You hear it in Nick Cannon’s autobiographical single “Can I live?” You see it in the stunning episode of the television show House where Dr. Gregory House’s finger is grasped by a baby in the womb during intrauterine surgery. The recognition of the life in the womb is going mainstream.

But the biggest shift came at the movies. In a nation with one of the world’s most wide-open abortion regimes, U.S. audiences flocked to see five motion pictures with life-affirming texts or subtexts: Knocked up, Waitress, Bella, August Rush and Juno.

USA Today weighed in earlier this week:

“The reason why people like these movies, and a common thread between them, is that people are happy to get a break and see stories which treasure the idea of children,” [Judd] Apatow [writer/director of Knocked Up] says. “Especially because there are a lot of things happening in the world today that are very dark and that don’t value human life. Children give you hope.”

And Christianity Today posted an entry, well, today:

“The church cannot take credit for this newfound interest [in pro-life storylines],” says [Fuller Seminary Professor Robert K.] Johnston, author of Reframing Theology and Film. “Rather, we need to thank a growing number of filmmakers for portraying the preciousness of life. All life has a sanctity that increasing numbers of people are recognizing.”

Christianity Today reviews a new film that is one of several making 2007 “the year of the unplanned pregnancy at the multiplex.” Opening today, Juno is the story of a high school girl with an unplanned pregnancy who decides not to have an abortion (in the waiting room of an abortion clinic).

Like other films in “the year of unplanned pregnancy” (Waitress, Knocked Up), Juno wasn’t made as a pro-life or conservative film. But, according to CT’s review, the message that comes through is that “Life is life, and deserves to be nurtured, even — if not especially — when everything around it is broken.”

Juno is receiving “universal acclaim” according to one film rating site. Another dubs it, “One of the brightest, funniest comedies of the year, whose smart script and direction are matched by assured performances.”

Rated PG-13 for mature thematic material, sexual content and language