Did anybody else catch this documentary on HBO? It is about an abortion clinic that is right across the street from an anti-abortion group's headquarters. The film seems to spend more time with the people working with the anti-abortion group than those working at the abortion clinic. That is OK but I really wanted to get a good look at both sides here. This particular anti-abortion group seemed very deceitful in their tactics to get women to renege on having an abortion done. I really didn't like them or their tactics at all. I won't use this viewing to judge all anti-abortion groups and people though. I also didn't like the fact that neither of the places had material there that promoted safe sex and adoption (this was not on film anyway). It was troubling because the women that they did showcase seemed rather ignorant about the subject, it was almost as if they didn't know they had a choice. Anyway, did anybody else catch this?
I am spoiler tagging it just in case. Spoiler They would try to make their place look like the abortion clinic so those wanting abortions would come there and listen to them. They would leave the women in rooms alone for a while and these rooms played videos and had reading material of anti-abortion propaganda. I mean, the woman in charge of the place basically gave a class on how to trick the expectant mothers in to coming in, talking to them, making them stay, listen and read. They would stalk the doctors so they could see them and the women they were picking up so that they could harass them. All kinds of stuff really.
interesting. I'll have to watch this. I haven't seen it of course, but here is part of a review from the l.a. times that may have a few of the instances Pun was referencing: Spoiler The first half of the film focuses on Anne, a devout Catholic and head of the Pregnancy Care Center, who is on a mission to stop those who are, as she tells volunteers in one training session, selling abortions as if they were cars. The irony of the situation — that she and her volunteers employ "Glengarry Glen Ross" kind of language to attempt to close their deal with young women — is lost on her. She and her colleagues believe they are doing God's work and so the ends justify the means. More disturbing is a church scene in which Father Tom Euteneur, a supporter of the center, compares abortion to a blood sacrifice and the abortion-rights movement to a diabolical cult. "There must be demons involved," he says, which is just the sort of language that makes those physicians who perform abortions do things like cover their heads with sheets as they are driven to A Woman's World, where they are greeted daily by protesters. And indeed, one of those protesters eventually follows the staff member who picks up and delivers these doctors and stakes out a doctor's car. Candace and Arnold, the couple who run A Woman's World, are, by contrast, far less militant than they are weary and mystified by what they see as the protesters' interference in the lives of perfect strangers. Candace gets angry only once in the film, when she discovers that the Pregnancy Care Center has underestimated a young woman's pregnancy — telling her she is at seven weeks when she's at 10. Candace believes this was done intentionally so the young woman might run out of time to obtain a legal abortion in Florida. It is certainly valuable to see such an emotionally fraught issue brought down to the nitty gritty of its daily life, and the most troubling aspect of "12th and Delaware" is the ignorance of the young women — one is just 15 — who seem to have little or no understanding of birth control and/or their right to use it. Considering the ease and many methods with which pregnancy can be prevented, the question becomes not just whether women should have the right to choose to have an abortion but why society has failed to help them avoid having to make that unenviable decision in the first place. http://mobile.latimes.com/wap/news/text.jsp?sid=294&nid=17626783&cid=16698&scid=1857&ith=2&title=Entertainment
Interesting documentary. I'll probably check it out if I remember to. The thing that bothers me most about arguing abortion rights is that the positions most people have are entirely immovable. You're not going to convince them of something different than their preconceived notion, and arguing about it is wholly unproductive because of that. Relationships can become strained and people can make poor decisions based on an irrelevant (so long as you're not pregnant) and irreconcilable position. Arguing about it is absolutely pointless.
