The American Abortion War
It has become one of the most vicious, important and divisive battlegrounds in the 2012 US presidential election. Since it was legalised in 1973, the issue of abortion has polarized the US, but now the battle has been taken to a new level.
Last year, an unprecedented number of laws have been passed across the US, all aimed at restricting abortion or reproductive rights.
But the fight goes far beyond the medical procedure, with Republican politicians even attacking the Obama administration for making contraception more readily available.
The US has seen more anti-abortion violence than any other country in the world. Since 1993, at least eight abortion providers, including four doctors have been killed. And there have been over 200 arsons and bombings against reproductive healthcare clinics since 1977.
Fault Lines investigates the forces behind the so-called war on women in the US. Why is a medical procedure being reframed as a deeply divisive moral issue in the US?
"God is Pro-life"? Wow! Whoever wrote that has clearly never read their Bible.
Let's see what the Bible says on the subject...
A pregnant woman who is injured and aborts the fetus warrants financial compensation only (to her husband), suggesting that the fetus is property, not a person (Exodus 21:22-25).
God enumerated his punishments for disobedience, including "cursed shall be the fruit of your womb" and "you will eat the fruit of your womb," directly contradicting sanctity-of-life claims (Deuteronomy 28:18,53).
For worshipping idols, God declared that not one of his people would live, not a man, woman or child (not even babies in arms), again confuting assertions about the sanctity of life (Jeremiah 44:7-8).
God will punish the Israelites by destroying their unborn children, who will die at birth, or perish in the womb, or never even be conceived (Hosea 9:10-16).
For rebelling against God, Samaria's people will be killed, their babies will be dashed to death against the ground, and their pregnant women will be ripped open with a sword (Hosea 13:16).
Jesus did not express any special concern for unborn children during the anticipated end times: "Woe to pregnant women and those who are nursing" (Matthew 24:19).
Non-Catholic Christianity didn't give a damn about abortion until American evangelists decided they wanted to influence politics so they decided on using abortion as a polarising issue and their followers swallowed their propaganda hook, line and sinker.
Now Robertallen1 I take it you are male by that moniker. The Judge and Jurist Blackstone one ups your sick calculation.
“A poorly written law is no law at all.”
“ If a law is wrong for one man it is wrong for all.”
I am a visual artist and specialize in painting the human figure. In University an entry prerequisite was “Anatomy for Artists” During the term art students would meet in the same forum as did pre- med students and the human cadaver would be discussed described, progressively dissected and we would draw sketch and memorized muscle bones and sinews. Aborting a fetus is the dissection of a living human. So dont skirt the issue- you are knocked up due to whatever circumstance but the life in your gut is your responsibility to protect. Funny the term responsibility, this generation doesn't want any of that. Dont try to tell me 100% of pregnancies ofcur in some crisis situation? BS!!
who the f*ck are these people to compare the systematic killing of adult and children human being to a developing fetus in a womb? My god they are delusional to a insane degree. this isnt funny anymore.
Extremely biased "documentary". Cherry-picked one religious group and then gave tons of time to one person claiming every crisis pregnancy centre gave wrong or biased info. Ignored all the bad stuff from abortion clinics including the "language is everything". They do not say they are killing an unborn child, but use language like remove the pregnancy, etc. Would be nice to see both sides represented without any bias.
I cannot believe how closed minded people are. If a woman wishes to keep her uterus empty then she will. It's her decision! It's her body! and if those christians think that abortion is the most terrible thing to do and women should not have one - tell that to victims of trauma, rape or incest who choose not to bring a baby into this world.
As for the men in this documentary who comment that they hate abortion so much and that they want all the clinics to shut down. THAT IS NOT YOUR RIGHT! No uterus, No opinion. You cannot judge a woman for wanting an abortion when you do not even know what she is doing.. what if she is sexually/physically abused by her partner? what if her contraception failed? What if she makes $100 a week and cant afford to support herself let alone a child? What if she finds out that her child will be severely disabled and will suffer everyday of its life? THATS a womans right and its her choice.
These decisions need to be made by women - not by arrogant pricks. And as for the women who hate abortion my advice is simple - spend your time doing more useful things like going to uni and getting a decent job and if you hate abortion that much then dont have one, nobody is forcing you to. Just leave the women who made that decision alone
Nothing like legalised murder, up next euthanasia, then the poor and homeless. The dehumanization and final solution agenda hard at work.
I love that the girl in the beginning is naive enough to think abortion will end. That's nice.
Planned Parenthood never mentioned sex with animals. Propaganda much?
I didn't know planned parenthood supported bestiality! you learn something new every day ;)
Three more cheers for Judge William M. Conley of Wisconsin for his recent ruling!!! Perhaps a link should be posted to "Abortion Provider Hospital--Access Law Halted in Wisconsin.
Three cheers for Judge Wickham Corwin of North Dakota for his recent ruling!!! Perhaps a link should be posted to "Abortion Rule on Hospital Access Blocked in North Dakota."
Over_the_Edge and anyone else:
It might be worth your while to check out RH Reality Check and perhaps post a link to it.
If anyone is opposed to abortion, my advice is; not to have an abortion.
Abortion without a medical reason should be discouraged. But it is absolutely necessary that it be allowed, if only because wherever it is disallowed the practice is forced underground greatly increasing the risks to the pregnant woman.
Until the first breath, the mother's life and health are exclusively paramount. An actual life should always trump a potential. If she decides for whatever reason that she does not want to go through childbirth which in itself carries significant risks, then she should have access to professional medical care to terminate safely. She is the one who has to live with the potential moral complications after the fact, no one else has any right to interfere, in my view especially men who will never face that decision nor the psychological harm it can do.
Women are not baby machines, whether before or after conception. Until the baby is born, her body is her body, and the baby is merely an extension of that.
I think the way they were trying to compare the victims of abortion to the victims of the holocaust was through both of the instances having been done silently and without consideration of the victims human rights. With the utmost respect to the victims of the holocaust, indeed one of my ancestors, there has been an approximate of 50 million lives lost to abortion, more than the number of those during that awful period. May those whose lives were deemed worthless by some now rest in peace in the arms of God.
How the hell are these people comparing abortions to the holocaust?! The Jews that died in the holocaust were starved for hours and incinerated, and gassed! They had memories, they had their first breath! Disgusting, this is not the fifties! Besides I'm sure that these people would not take care of these would be aborted kids- financially or emotionally after they were born.
So sick of people trying to police the human body. If I want to dump drugs into my body, sell it on the corner, get an abortion and end my life with a shot of cyanide, I will do so. You can't legislate morality. Prisons are for violent criminals, not people whose lifestyle we disagree with.
Glad to see some reasonable comments on this film (unlike so many others here). Extremism comes in many forms; violent anti-abortionists are terrorists, plain and simple.
Take your perceived piety elsewhere, psychos.
Wow, that film wasn't biased at all...
Less homo-animalis will be much better for our planet. For Nature, it is better less but of higher quality
WE ARE NOT A THEOCRACY-isn't it funny that most-if not all-pro-lifers are male,white,rich,and CHRISTIAN?!Well,I am a Yid,and pro-choice.and how DARE they conpare abortion to the Holocast?!!!I like to call the religious WRONG "the American Taliban"
Plus I'm sure a lot of the pro-life states also still have the death penalty.
In my head it all stems from this: Kids are really expensive to raise.
And a child born to a family/woman who cannot cope is more likely to have an awful upbringing and become a dysfunctional adult. (Of course there are exceptions to that statement.)
But the proof is in history.
Abortion used to be illegal and women still felt like it was their only option. Uncountable women have died through back-street abortions, and people wanna cause that again?!
It's madness!
Pro-life is so short sighted to me. Do they want orphanages filled to the brim, work houses, homeless children roaming the streets?
Every person is in an individual position, with an individual history and individual circumstances. Personally I'm against REPEAT abortions. I'm talking 3-5 times just because at the time they couldn't be bothered to take precautions.
But society has never been kind to women; now we are expected to be educated, have a career and run a functional family and social life, talk about pressure!
We as women are at war with our own bodies to fit into society. We are ridiculed for our natural cycles, told we must be feminine but not because it will make males uncomfortable. We even get blamed for being a distraction if we are too attractive in the work place (this actually happened and a woman lost her job).
I've never had an abortion but I've had plenty of pregnancy scares, the first being when I was 17 and it's awful. To know that the option is there is something that has crossed my mind but is not a choice that I have ever thought about lightly.
I'm definitely pro-choice but along the guidelines that it should NEVER be treated as a mundane thing.
Who are these men to say a woman cannot terminate a pregnancy? They are horrible people. The man rarely has much to do with an unwanted pregnancy anyway so what the eff do they know?
P.s God does not exist. There is no deity. Stop using that as an excuse you cowards.
In this country there are many laws about what use can be done of a person's body. We can't strap people down against their will and take their blood, even to save someone who's bleeding to death, even if the other person caused the injury. We can't harvest organs from people against their will, not even to save a life. In fact, we can't even harvest organs from a dead body to save lives, unless previous consent, or consent of the family is given. In fact, we can't even take money from somebody without their consent even to feed a starving child. But apparently some people think it is perfectly admissible to force a woman to supply her body for a pregnancy even if she doesn't want to do so. In other words, they want women to have less rights to their bodies than a cadaver. Think about it folks, then you'll understand why it's called "war on women".