My Body, My Child is a 1982 television film directed by Marvin J. Chomsky

Marvin J. Chomsky

Marvin J. Chomsky is an American television and film director. He has also worked as a producer. He is a cousin of academic Noam Chomsky....

 and starring Vanessa Redgrave

Vanessa Redgrave

Vanessa Redgrave, CBE is an English actress of stage, screen and television, as well as a political activist.She rose to prominence in 1961 playing Rosalind in As You Like It with the Royal Shakespeare Company and has since made more than 35 appearances on London's West End and Broadway, winning...

. It premiered on ABC

American Broadcasting Company

The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

 on 12 April, 1982. It includes early performances by future Sex and the City

Sex and the City

Sex and the City is an American television comedy-drama series created by Darren Star and produced by HBO. Broadcast from 1998 until 2004, the original run of the show had a total of ninety-four episodes...

co-stars, Sarah Jessica Parker

Sarah Jessica Parker

Sarah Jessica Parker is an American film, television, and theater actress and producer.She is best known for her leading role as Carrie Bradshaw on the HBO television series Sex and the City , for which she won four Golden Globe Awards, three Screen Actors Guild Awards, and two Emmy Awards...

 and Cynthia Nixon

Cynthia Nixon

Cynthia Ellen Nixon is an American actress, known for her portrayal of Miranda Hobbes in the HBO series Sex and the City . She has received two Screen Actors Guild Awards, two Emmy Awards, a Tony Award, and a Grammy Award....

. It is also the final role of the late Jack Albertson

Jack Albertson

Jack Albertson was an American character actor dating to vaudeville. A comedian, dancer, singer, and musician, Albertson is perhaps best known for his roles as Manny Rosen in The Poseidon Adventure , Grandpa Joe in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Amos Slade in the 1981 animated film The Fox...

, who was subsequently nominated posthumously for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie.

Plot

Leenie (Redgrave) is a middle-aged Irish-American schoolteacher with three grown-up daughters. Yet she unexpectedly finds herself pregnant again and is delighted. However her doctor rejects this possibility because of an unreliable blood test and her age. Thus her symptoms such as troubled sleeping and sickness are mis-doagnosed as psychogenic. She is prescribed a host of medications to cope with these difficulties. However it later turns out that she is in fact pregnant and that these medications have been causing irreversible damage to her unborn baby. Faced with the truth that her child will be born with defects, she faces a decision to keep the baby or go against her religious beliefs and have an abortion.

Cast

• Vanessa Redgrave
  Vanessa Redgrave
  Vanessa Redgrave, CBE is an English actress of stage, screen and television, as well as a political activist.She rose to prominence in 1961 playing Rosalind in As You Like It with the Royal Shakespeare Company and has since made more than 35 appearances on London's West End and Broadway, winning...
  
   as Leenie Cabrezi
• Jack Albertson
  Jack Albertson
  Jack Albertson was an American character actor dating to vaudeville. A comedian, dancer, singer, and musician, Albertson is perhaps best known for his roles as Manny Rosen in The Poseidon Adventure , Grandpa Joe in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Amos Slade in the 1981 animated film The Fox...
  
   as Poppa MacMahon
• Joseph Campanella
  Joseph Campanella
  Joseph Campanella in Lewistown, Pennsylvania is an American character actor who has appeared in over 200 TV and film roles since 1955, including such shows as The Eleventh Hour, The Fugitive, Mission: Impossible, Gunsmoke, The Road West, The Golden Girls and Mama's Family. He also had a role in...
  
   as Joe Cabrezi
• Stephen Elliott
  Stephen Elliott (actor)
  Stephen Elliott was an American actor. His best known role was that of crime boss, Burt Johnson, in the hit 1981 film Arthur.-Theatre:Elliott's first acting engagement was at the New York Neighborhood Playhouse in 1946...
  
   as Dr. Gallagher
• James Naughton
  James Naughton
  James Naughton is an American director, theater, film and television actor.-Early life:Naughton was born in Middletown, Connecticut, the son of Rosemary and Joseph Naughton, both of whom were teachers He is the brother of actor David Naughton.-Career:Naughton graduated from Brown University and...
  
   as Dr. Dan Berensen
• Gail Strickland
  Gail Strickland
  Gail Strickland is an American character actress.Strickland was born in Birmingham, Alabama, the daughter of Theodosia and Lynn Strickland, who owned a tire shop...
  
   as Adele
• Maia Danziger as Barbara 'Bo'
• Kenneth Kimmins
  Kenneth Kimmins
  Kenneth Kimmins is an American actor, best known for his roles as Doctor Klein on Lois and Clark and Howard Burleigh, the Athletic Director of Minnesota State University on the hit TV show, Coach.Kimmins was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Charlotte and Edward F...
  
   as Bill
• Stephen D. Newman as Dr. Fialkin
• Sarah Jessica Parker
  Sarah Jessica Parker
  Sarah Jessica Parker is an American film, television, and theater actress and producer.She is best known for her leading role as Carrie Bradshaw on the HBO television series Sex and the City , for which she won four Golden Globe Awards, three Screen Actors Guild Awards, and two Emmy Awards...
  
   as Katy
• Cynthia Nixon
  Cynthia Nixon
  Cynthia Ellen Nixon is an American actress, known for her portrayal of Miranda Hobbes in the HBO series Sex and the City . She has received two Screen Actors Guild Awards, two Emmy Awards, a Tony Award, and a Grammy Award....
  
  as Nancy
• Alexandra Borrie as Jana
• Leon B. Stevens as Dr. Butler
• Charles Kahlenberg as Dr. Spoke
• Mavis Ray as Aunt Beasey