Posted on 07/11/2004 12:47:21 PM PDT by Lorianne
Women who have had an abortion should consider avoiding a controversial documentary on termination, a leading pro-choice group has warned.
With the ABC planning to screen My Foetus, a British documentary that shows an abortion procedure, lobby group Children by Choice said the footage could upset the estimated one in four women who have had an abortion.
"Women who are concerned about revisiting the experience of abortion should think very carefully about watching, and I probably would not recommend it," co-ordinator Cait Calcutt said.
Pro-choice groups have also criticised Federal Health Minister Tony Abbott's comments on the film.
But pro-life advocates have supported Mr Abbott and urged women considering an abortion to watch the film, which screens on August 8.
Mr Abbott said on Friday it would not harm Australians to understand the "brutal business" of abortion.
"It is an ugly business and it probably doesn't hurt for the Australian people to understand just what is going on in clinics all around Australia," he said.
Advertisement Advertisement My Foetus, created by British filmmaker Julia Black, caused controversy when it screened in Britain in April, primarily over footage of a vacuum pump abortion of a four-week-old foetus.
Also shown were images of 10-, 11- and 21-week-old aborted foetuses.
"I decided to include [the images] because however shocking, repulsive and confrontational they are, they represent reality," Ms Black writes in The Sun-Herald's Sunday Extra this week.
"Rationally we know abortion ends the life of a potential human being, but why when we see what they look like are we so shocked?"
Ms Calcutt, from Children by Choice, said she was concerned how the footage would affect women who had made the decision to have an abortion and criticised Mr Abbott's comments.
"I think some of the comments by the Minister for Health have been unhelpful and quite hurtful to women who have experienced an abortion," she said.
Lesley Vick, president of the Australian Reproductive Health Alliance, said women should make up their own minds on whether to watch the documentary.
Margaret Tighe, the president of Right to Life Australia, said she hoped women considering a termination would view the program.
"I think that if it's going to help people wake up to the reality of abortion it's a good idea to watch it," she said.
"It's going to be shown at 10 at night and so it's unlikely there will be children watching it."
Mrs Tighe said she hoped the film would reduce the abortion rate from its estimated 100,000 termination procedures a year.
"Hopefully it will have some impact," she said.
"We are killing all these wonderful children who could make a wonderful contribution to Australia."
fyi
What a bull$hit lie that statistic is... that would mean that 25% of all women born have abortions... and that's just not remotely true. The pro death crowd wishes they had a rate of 1 in 4 women having abortions... if that were true classifying it properly as infantacide would never be possible.
Just like the "prison bed" controversy. You don't need as many prison beds as you would think if you count each crime, because so many of the prisoners are repeat offenders.
The pro-aborts know this, of course, they just like the bigger number because it makes more people complicit. Misery loves company.
Why is that? I thought that it wasn't a person. Why should someone, who is proud to be pro-abortion, mind watching something that confirms that pride? /scathing sarcasm
This film will be shown in the United States?!
I wonder the same thing. If it is not a person, then watching this would be no different than watching a program on open heart surgery, liver transplant, or an appendectomy. There are certainly lots of documentaries which show various surgeries on humans. What is the difference to a pro-choice person?
I also wonder at all of the PSAs, brochures, pamphlets, books, videos, etc., about what women should NOT do, while pregnant. It seems to me that, if a fetus is not a living human being, a pregnant woman should be able to do all of the drinking, drugging, smoking, etc. that she wishes.
"I think some of the comments by the Minister for Health have been unhelpful and quite hurtful to women who have experienced an abortion," she said.
...could upset the estimated one in four women who have had an abortion.
I think this should be required viewing for every women who is considering an abortion. The way the baby butchers sell abortion to women, these women go through with the slaughter with about as much trepidation as having a cavity filled.
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