Pro-choice? Pro-life? Undecided? Here's something to consider

June 18, 2010 by  
Filed under Patrick's Blog


A young woman faced with an unplanned pregnancy seeks an abortion. As the abortion takes place, she hears her unborn daughter describing what it’s doing to her.
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16 Responses to “Pro-choice? Pro-life? Undecided? Here's something to consider”
  1. Anonymous says:

    Just some info: I am Pro-LIFE. I believe and hold strongly to the teachings of the Catholic Church, but I do not believe that no one would desire to watch this movie, why?

    Because people don't watch movies to actually see portrayals of real life, they do so as a means of escape from the real horrors that occur in life. I watched the trailer provided here but with trepidation just because I think abortion is abhorrent and I found the film trailer to correctly portray the sickness that even just the consideration abortion is- but people will not go to see it which is the SAME reason why people don't want to get involved in this matter- ITS TOO HORRIFIC to realize its going on.

    But perhaps maybe that is the purpose of this film- to show its true nature. However I'm not sure that this is the way to go about promoting life. People gravitate to tend to listen to things that are pleasant. And I think the film might actually cause suicides in pregnant women in crisis considering abortion. They are already at that state of horror in their life which is why they are considering the abortion in the first place. The ones who don't care, think abortion is no big deal won't be touched by this film because they are not living in reality as it is. No movie, no matter how horrific will snap them out of their false reasoning. They would most likely to laugh at it in scorn.

  2. Kellee says:

    I agree that abortion is the worst thing that a human can do. It is unbelievable that this horrific practice continues today, it makes me sick. That being said, I could not watch the trailer.

  3. Anonymous says:

    Ditto on the contraception angle. Can't think of a single social ailment that doesn't in some way have it's genesis in that.

  4. JMJ Catholic says:

    I can not watch a video of a murder, even if it is not real. It may or may not be effective for pregnant women. But I wanted to share a true story…A friend of mine walked up to a couple holding a sign of a dismembered child and told them that Pope John Paul said that "we can not celebrate life with pictures of death." I love the photos of what the baby looks like at all stages. It's impossible to not see the beauty of that child.

  5. Amanda Borenstadt says:

    I think it's powerful. And it may just save a life. Perhaps a woman sees this video and somewhere down the road she's pregnant with a baby she didn't plan and this replays in her mind and sways her decision.

    There are a great variety of people in the world. I think we need a great variety of ways of reaching them. Just an opinion. 😐

  6. Father Matt says:

    Whatever the intent of the film is, and regardless of whether the trailer accurately depicts the films or not, the fact remains that people across the board will not reject abortion and put an end to it until they see it. No one with the slightest bit of conscience can watch an abortion and truthfully support it. This is why PP won't show women the ultrasound, and precisely why crisis pregnancy centers do.

    A D&C abortion is literally the ripping of a defenseless child to pieces. A saline abortion is literally burning the child to death. A PB abortion delivers most of the child and then vacuums out the brain. There is no more horrific human practice than abortion, and every other social issue pales in comparison.

    The question of "mass of tissue" has been settled long ago by medical biology. It's not the woman's body, and it's not simply a mass of tissue. That's sciecne talking.

    The issue of "human being" vs. "human person" is a philosophical red herring. The difference has no real meaning whatsoever, and is only used as a smokescreen to confuse the discussion of abortion.

    And Tim is absolutely correct about the correlation between contraception and abortion. Pope Paul VI pegged that one decades ago in Humanae Vitae.

  7. Patrick Madrid says:

    Careful, MattG. You really shouldn't assume that you know what I "suppose" on this. You don't.

    At the very least, though, this post got you thinking about this issue, which is what I hoped to accomplish.

  8. Matt G says:

    I'm not sure what the intent of the trailer/movie is going to be. If it is a horror film inspired by the horror of abortion then it will be interesting to watch. Artistic portrayal of abortion in the style of slasher or horror films is an interesting take.

    However, if the purpose is, as Mr. Madrid supposes, to convince someone to be pro-life, then I believe it will fail. If I were pro-abortion, I would be offended by this trailer. You might say that's a good thing, but it would not be my sensibilities that were offended but my expectation that pro-lifers took me or my reasoning seriously.

    Very few people who describe themselves as pro-choice believe that the fetus is a human being in the same capacity as a fully-developed child. Some believe it is a "mass of tissue", others a "potential human being", and still others a "human being" but not a "human person", etc.

    I will not debate the accuracy of these statements here. What I will say is that portraying the unborn child as a highly functioning conscious child who can make a plea for their own existence is a straw man argument that we as pro-lifers should be above making. If pro-choice advocates believed that an unborn fetus was a child to the same degree as a newborn, we would not be having this debate and abortion would be illegal. I am not saying it would convince every ardent pro-abortion advocate, but it would convince a majority.

    Secondly, I take issue with the portrayal of the abortion itself as some sort of Saw-esque procedure. One of the horrors of abortion is the clinical precision which it is carried out and this simply makes it grotesque and unrealistic.

    As an artistic experiment the trailer has promise. As an argument for life it falls far short.

  9. Christopher says:

    What a provocative clip!

    A few years ago I attended a talk given by Randall Terry, the founder of Operation Rescue. In it, he asserted that there will be no change in the abortion status quo unless pro-lifers are willing to employ strong imagery and provocative language (e.g. saying "baby killing" instead of "medical procedure" or even "abortion").

    His point was that many pro-life groups have softened their message so much that it has become palatable and, ultimately, ineffective. They sell baby feet lapel pins on Father's Day or flowers for the aborted on Mother's Day to "raise awareness" but ultimately they do nothing to affect real change.

    He cited the examples of slavery and women's suffrage where there was a constant media blitz that showed criss cross scars on the backs of slaves or women being dragged in the streets by their hair along with powerful commentary on the issues. These media campaigns really "raised awareness" on the injustices at hand and made people so uncomfortable that they just wanted those atrocities to go away. It was a pretty solid argument.

  10. Anonymous says:

    Steve Nicholls,

    don't be offended if someone acknowledges hell, and acknowledges it in the circumstances in which Jesus Christ in the Gospels promises it. He promises heaven and he promises hell. Both.

  11. Anonymous says:

    scary…but really truthful in its message.

  12. Steve Nicholls says:

    "A special room in hell"? Thankfully I believe in a loving God who may ultimately correct our wrong thinking, but wouldn't subject anyone to such an end.

  13. Tim H. says:

    Abortion will not stop until the use of contraception does and those who use contraception bear the brunt of the blame for turning sex into a recreational activity and thereby creating the conditions which allow abortion to flourish. Those who fight abortion yet use or council contraception – prayerfully considered or otherwise – are hypocrites. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a special room in hell for Catholics who cry out against abortion but use the pill or have gotten vasectomies.

    There may be marginal gains in the fight against abortion but there will be no real victory until we stop using contraception.

    -Tim-

  14. sudy says:

    Perhaps the trailer's different from the movie, but assuming I know nothing about the movie, it reminds me of the recent horror movie The Unborn. In which the protagonist fears the child never born.

  15. Kevin in Texas says:

    Thanks for posting this, Mr. Madrid.

    While I always appreciate sincere pro-life efforts to utilize the media effectively, seeing this trailer makes me wonder whether it would appeal to anyone truly "on the fence" on the matter of abortion. I seriously doubt anyone who was hard-core in their pro-abortion mindset would even consider watching this, but I presume they are not the intended audience of these filmmakers. The "mushy middle", of which I was long a part, would seem to be their target, but the end of the trailer is quite explicit and shocking, so I wonder if it wouldn't turn away more than it would attract from among that audience. Maybe the film itself is effective and powerful, but it often happens that trailers can mis-direct our attention and even trick us into thinking a movie is about something entirely different than what it actually is.

  16. dmwallace says:

    I'm struggling with the fact that this looks like a horror film, but then again, I think that's a point they're trying to get across. There is nothing more horrific than ripping a child, limb by limb, from her mother's womb.

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