My Body, My Child

My Body, My Child is a 1982 American made-for-television drama film directed by Marvin J. Chomsky and starring Vanessa Redgrave. It premiered on ABC on 12 April 1982. It includes early performances by future Sex and the City co-stars, Sarah Jessica Parker and Cynthia Nixon. It is also the final television role of Jack Albertson, 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 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-diagnosed 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 as Leenie Cabrezi
 * Jack Albertson as Poppa MacMahon
 * Joseph Campanella as Joe Cabrezi
 * Stephen Elliott as Dr. Gallagher
 * James Naughton as Dr. Dan Berensen
 * Gail Strickland as Adele
 * Maia Danziger as Barbara 'Bo'
 * Kenneth Kimmins as Bill
 * Stephen D. Newman as Dr. Fialkin
 * Sarah Jessica Parker as Katy
 * Cynthia Nixon as Nancy
 * Alexandra Borrie as Jana
 * Leon B. Stevens as Dr. Butler
 * Charles Kahlenberg as Dr. Spoke
 * Mavis Ray as Aunt Beasey