Babel

Tag: Pro-choice

  • 12th and Delaware: A Documentary About Abortion & CO, Raising Disturbing Feelings…

    (video taken from here – see the film, its description and comments in the link)

    This documentary is difficult to put in categories. It does follow the pro-life side, but at the same time, I can’t be sure of any bias because there isn’t any literal comment on what’s being filmed. Long story short, 8 years after an abortion clinic was opened in Fort Pierce, Florida, across the street, a pro-life group opened their own version of a pregnancy/counseling clinic. See the description here:

    The two sides of the abortion debate in America literally face one another in this documentary from filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady. In Fort Pierce, Florida, a women’s heath care center is located at the corner of 12th and Delaware. On the same corner, across the street, is another women’s heath care center. However, the two centers are not in the same business; one provides abortions along with a variety of other health services, while the other primarily offers counseling to women considering abortion, urging them to keep their babies. In 12th and Delaware, Ewing and Grady offer a look inside both offices, as pro-life counselors give women a mixture of concern and disinformation about terminating their pregnancies and the pro-choice medical staff struggles to work under the frequent threat of violence against them. The film also examines the handful of protesters who stand outside the abortion clinic, confronting both patients and staff as they enter and exit.

    My problem is not with the film itself. My problem is with the context and the whole situation. Somebody who is level-headed and can think from more than one point of view, can see where the aggression lies and who is the victim in this issue. I’m not going to barge in the debate myself… Well, not completely. I’ve learnt to be careful about expressing an opinion (especially when we’re dealing with absolutes like “pro” and “con”) when I don’t know what I’m talking about. I pray to God that I won’t be put in that situation. I’ve passed the hard part (adolescence) without such *cough* accidents and I consider myself lucky to have learned through other people’s experience and not from mine. But here lies the catch. I can’t say I’m in either side.

    Why? I remember when I was little – 7 or 8 I think, I accidentally stumbled upon a documentary on abortion on TV (I was for some reason alone at that particular moment, and being curious I watched it – at that point I knew my parents wouldn’t let me watch it, so I only told them years later). It was pretty shocking, it was my first image of an abortion post-3 months and that image got stuck into my head. At that point I realized how fragile life is and perhaps unconsciously made the decision not to get into that situation. Never ever! I’m selfish too. I want to make myself a decent living and perhaps even marry before I’ll even think about pregnancy. That should be normal. I mean, I don’t necessarily consider myself as an example (well, for me, I narcisistically do, but that’s just human), but people shouldn’t even think about having babies before they’re prepared: in mind, social standing and possibility to give that child a good life. How many tragedies could have been prevented if people thought before rushing into *cough* baby-making activities?

    Coming from a country where abortion was illegal until 1989 (well, until some ten years ago you would also go to jail for being gay…), knowing the stories of these women who – sometimes – even lost their lives in underground, un-sanitary abortions, or the stories of women who could barely put a slice of bread on the table but had to accept a new life in their homes… There’s no wonder the orphanages are full and constantly renewing their numbers… Romanian women are still barely conscious (excluding some educated young women, maybe) about such things as contraception – they simply didn’t have mothers, sisters, grandmothers, friends to teach them. The subject is very much a tabu, even though magazines and TV shows promote the pleassant parts of sex (like everywhere else in the World), while leaving out a little detail that could save everybody a little trouble: responsibility. And not responsibility after you’ve found out you’re pregnant! Responsibility before even thinking of having unprotected sex. Thinking twice before rushing in with a boy (I’m talking about teenage girls) that may or may not take responsibility if things go awry…

    And then, there is the question of rape. I know about myself, that if I were in that situation (God forbid, again!), I wouldn’t want a constant reminder of that awful moment. I’d probably hate that child so much that I’d make my and his/her life a living hell. Well, I’m selling the skin of the bear from the forest, so I’d better not get there. In any case, women have gained the right to hate the men who harass, assault, rape or abuse them. By hate I mean acknowledging your own value and power and standing against anybody telling you otherwise.

    I was looking at these girls, these children… How easily you can manipulate them! How easily you can destroy their future! I’ve always hated any kind of aggressive propaganda. And that is what these pro-life organizations are doing. They don’t represent God, they don’t even represent man (pun intended), they represent their own narrow-minded bubbles. They have the same behavior inquisitors had back in the day. They have the same behavior as any rapacious sect members have when (s)he’s out and about forcibly feeding anybody coming their way with their porkies. They’re so pro-life they wouldn’t hesitate to lynch the gynecologist and everybody around (involved or not with the clinic) from across the street, given the chance.

    That’s why I’m sorry to say I’m a bit afraid of sects and para-religious organizations that think they have the law of man and God in their hands. They don’t do anything else but harass people who would have never bothered them (I mean, who opened the second “clinic”?), would have gone their own way, doing their own thing as the human rights of any democratic country dictate. Who is aggressive here? These people can’t but annoy and scare me. I only have one question: Who can make decisions for my personal affairs that happen inside my private space? What right does anybody else but me have in deciding what I do with my body? Of course, not everybody agrees with everybody, but disagreeing with my choice – does that give you the right to harass me? Is there a reason why we’re stormed with pro-life articles, pictures, manifestations and the kind – doesn’t it remind you of those annoying door-to-door or telephon sails-people who nag you about buying the new nuclear pillow that cures any existing disease and they nag you, they nag you, they nag you until you say “The hell with it!”? Wouldn’t sex education (and better education in general) and teaching responsibility to our youth be more effective (and cheap!) than all the stunts they’re pulling to harass us?

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