Tuesday, December 15, 2009

New abortion movie: Will it make a difference?



HT: Suzy B:

Los Angeles Time’s Robin Abcarian reported last week on recent test screenings for an upcoming film, South Dakota: A Woman’s Right to Choose. Set in South Dakota and Philadelphia, the film—a “dramumentary”—follows the true stories of two teenage girls faced with unplanned pregnancies. The filmmaker, Bruce Isacson, integrates the dramaticized tales with interviews from scientists, thinkers, and activists from both sides of the debate.


Gotta tell you, there's a point of view being presented, and it's pretty clear in the film's website -- "As the stories unfold on the screen under Isacson’s direction of a talented cast, he simultaneously creates a fascinating mosaic of contradictory truths about the complex issues related to a woman’s right to choose."

Anybody who frames abortion as being about "a woman's right to choose" has made it pretty plain which side he comes down on, just as anybody who speaks of "Second Amendment rights" isn't going to be backing much gun control legislation. For those who oppose abortion, it's not about anybody's right -- it's about responsibility, and about basic human decency being extended to the youngest and most vulnerable among us.

This isn't to say that the film won't present things reasonably fairly. Which, of course, means that abortion advocates will be having apoplectic fits. To even concede that there is an organism whose fate is being decided is anathema to them.

I have cause for hope regarding this film: The Filmmaker's Statement says, "During production I realized how little I knew about this volatile issue. After filming many interviews I concluded that most of the public were as uneducated as I was on this subject." Amen to that.

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