‘Last Abortion Clinic’: profile of pro-lifers’ success
While many reporters look to the White House, Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court for decisive action on abortion rights, Frontline on Nov. 8 will look to the state level, where pro-life forces often win the day.
“The Last Abortion Clinic,” produced by Raney Aronson, asks whether the federal debate over the legality of abortion may have become a moot point in the decades-long battle over reproductive choice.
Frontline presents the film as the Supreme Court takes up its first abortion rights case in five years, Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of New England. The latest case could change the standards for lawsuits challenging abortion laws. Aronson, a 35-year-old filmmaker contributing her fourth full-length Frontline, lays out the legal background leading up to it.
Focusing on Mississippi, where only one abortion clinic remains in operation, Aronson documents how the pro-life movement’s strategy of incrementally restricting abortion has succeeded in limiting low-income women’s medical options. She interviews both pro-life and pro-choice strategists and health care providers who counsel pregnant women.
“I chose to do this through the eyes of what the pro-life movement has done, and how successful they’ve been in restricting access at the state level, and particularly its effects on poor women,” said Aronson.
She traces pro-lifers’ progress to the1992 Supreme Court decision in a Pennsylvania case, Planned Parenthood v. Casey, that allows states to regulate abortion services as long as they don’t place “undue burdens” on women.
“The Casey decision opened the door for us to create laws that reflect our values,” says Mississippi state legislator Alan Nunnelee in a rough cut of the documentary. Frontline has scheduled a preview feed of “The Last Abortion Clinic” for Oct. 19.
When Aronson researched the film, she initially didn’t understand the implications of the Casey decision, which allowed states to place restrictions such as informed consent—requiring women to wait 24 hours to have an abortion—and parental consent for minors to end a pregnancy.
“I figured if I didn’t know about it, most Americans didn’t,” Aronson said. She goes into clinics to document how laws enacted after Casey influence the decisions of women who are with child and without money.
“These women have no option but to continue with the pregnancy,” says Pat White, an obstetrician and gynecologist at a public clinic in rural Mississippi. White talks with a 21-year-old mother who is six months’ pregnant but didn’t seek medical care because she wasn’t prepared to deal with another pregnancy.
Aronson goes into a private clinic run by pro-lifers who offer free sonograms to women as a method of fostering bonds between mother and unborn child. “The sonogram is a wonderful addition to our services,” says the clinic director. “It personalizes the baby for the mama.”
“The Last Abortion Clinic” follows up on an idea that came to Aronson while filming “The Jesus Factor,” her 2004 Frontline documentary on President Bush’s experience as a born-again Christian and its role in his political career. In talking with evangelical Christians about what influences their voting decisions, Aronson was surprised to learn that the overriding issue was abortion, she said. “I thought it had been surpassed by gay marriage.”
Aronson decided to take up the topic in a separate film. A key source who helped with “The Jesus Factor” referred her to pro-life activists. Even so, a right-to-life group in Pennsylvania refused to participate in the film. She had to win over suspicious Mississippians, too — showing some skeptics “The Jesus Factor” and other Frontline films. “We had to bend over backwards,” she said, “to prove to them that we would treat them with respect.”
The battles over CPB in the media “did a disservice to us as an institution because people stopped to question whether we were bringing a bias to bear, and that was unfortunate,” says Fanning. Aronson succeeded in rising above it, he said.
“There’s a peculiar chemistry that you can’t predict when someone approaches you open-handedly and says, ‘Here’s what I’m trying to do and I’m interested in your side of the story,’” Fanning said. “It’s a matter of professionalism, having some record, being able to share other work, and being able to answer the difficult questions that people ask.”
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posted Oct. 18, 2005
Copyright 2005 by Current Publishing Committee
