Customer Reviews

Unborn in the USA

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This movie is absolutely brilliant. It is a balanced look at an important issue that still causes conflict in our country. The film pulls no punches showing the good and the bad of this highly divisive issue.

Fell and Thompson show the stories of multiple people involved in the pro-life movement and do so with shocking honesty. The film delves into the multiple levels of the movement, ranging from the highly-funded efforts of the Focus Institute, to the story of violent "abortionist bombers" that are associated with the "Army of God", to the grass-roots anti-abortion movement. At each phase the sheds light on the efforts that being made on behalf of furthering the pro-life agenda, which have in large part remained out of the public eye.

Viewers should not come into the film expecting it to change their views on abortion. This is not a propaganda film for either side of the argument. It is instead an enlightening and honest look at the other side of the issue, the part that the newspapers and tv cameras don't report on because it wouldn't make a good 30-second sound-byte or three-line quote. While the mainstream media focuses on only the sensational aspects of the battle over abortion this film digs deeper and reveals so much more about both sides of the equation. This film should spark informed discussion for any viewer.

This DVD is a must buy. If you haven't seen the film then you need to watch it, no matter your opinion on abortion. If you saw the film in theaters, then the DVD extras including deleted scenes and post-production video interviews make it well-worth the investment.

This film is a must for any college or university campus. While it centers on the pro-life leaders, it deals with both sides of the argument and presents no conclusions, leaving it up to the viewer to decide. What it does do, is spark informed, academic discusssion, which is the life-blood of American colleges and universities.

I recently purchased this film and will not soon shake the new impressions that I have gleaned from just one viewing. I can't wait to watch it again with my friends to spark the debate of an issue that deserves attention.

Unlike most political films, which seek to ridicule those on the other side of an issue, this documentary truly strives for and, to a great extent, achieves a fair minded, objective approach. Numerous people from all spectrums of the movement are filmed and interviewed. Some are relatively moderate, seeking to change things through dialogue, imagery and the political process. While others, such as the "Army Of God", support violent extremism, including the bombing of abortion clinics and the murder of doctors.

Personally I am strongly pro-choice. But I am willing to listen to and consider rational argument from those who disagree with me. What I found most striking and disturbing was that every single person shown supporting the anti-abortion cause was a fundamentalist Christian who based their beliefs on religious values rather than scientific fact. While I find it perfectly reasonable to place some restrictions on late term abortions, which our society already does, I find it ludicrous to consider the termination of a first trimester pregnancy to be equivalent to murder. The absurd attempt to prevent the legalization of the "morning after pill" is another clearcut example of anti-abortion activists stuck on a "life begins at conception" religious belief rather than considering the medical facts. Of course, they also refuse to acknowledge the reality that abortion always have and always will take place in human societies irregardless of its legal status. In fact, some countries where abortion is illegal, such as the staunchly Catholic countries of Latin America, have higher rates of abortion than countries where it is legal. My wife, who is originally from Ecuador, says she would never have an abortion herself but believes it should be legal because of all the women in her country who end up dead after having an "underground" abortion.

Still this documentary does an excellent job of letting the anti-abortion activists speak for themselves and allowing the viewers to form their own opinions. I consider this doc worth watching for people on both sides of this controversial issue.

I teach an ethics class and thought this would be a good video to show my students. It was billed as being balanced, without editorializing. My hope was that it would show fair presentations of arguments that we could then dissect in class. Much to my disappointment, I found the movie to present a straw man argument of the pro-life position. While the producers did not engage in any kind of critique of the views presented, they most certainly went out of their way to present the pro-life position as ridiculous. There were zero arguments present regarding the strengths or weaknesses of either position in the debate. What the viewer sees is merely interviews and video footage of what I would characterize as extremists in the movement that do not represent a reasoned approach to the issue. Interviews consisted of the following: people who stand on street corners holding signs of aborted fetuses, protesters yelling obscenities and calling pro-choicers names (i.e. spawn of Satan), people who advocate blowing up abortion clinics and killing doctors, a woman who makes dolls of aborted fetuses to sell to grieving mothers. The implied message: there is no reasoned approach from pro-life proponents, they are all a bunch of loons.

The thing about editorializing is that if you get to edit the movie, you make the choices about what gets presented and what doesn't. It is clear that the producers had an agenda. How about interviewing an ethicist who is arguing against abortion? The front cover shows the supreme court, but fails to even present a single legal argument. When the issue of partial birth abortion is discussed, the implication is clear that the only reason the Supreme Court upheld the ban is that conservative appointees outnumbered moderates and liberals. Again, lets discuss the legal arguments and decide for ourselves. The subtitle of this film is how the pro-lifers are winning. After watching this film I am sure that most will come away scratching their heads wondering how, with such poor representation, pro-lifers are winning.

I am sure that if one produced such a documentary on the pro-choice movement, one could equally present a one sided impression. This does nothing to actually further the debate or increase dialogue, and I find that disheartening. While it is certainly the producers right to make such a film, I find it misleading to bill it as fair. If you are looking for a balanced view, keep searching.

Unborn in the U.S.A. is a fascinating look anti-abortion activists. In the 1990s, the federal government passed a law mandating stiff penalties for protestors who block access to abortion clinics. The law forced anti-abortion activists to devise other means of protesting. Now, the protestors tour the U.S. with graphic photos of aborted fetuses. Much of the film focuses on the confrontations during these tours.

The film made me appreciate the diversity of views among anti-abortion activists. At one extreme is The Army of God, a domestic terrorist group whose leader says that he has no sympathy for the families of murdered abortion providers. At the other is a group made up of women who have had abortions and, as a result, are filled with regret. I have no sympathy for the Army of God, but much sympathy for the regretful women.

Most of the leaders of the anti-abortion movement are men. I wonder if these men are too quick to judge, given that they will never face an unwanted pregnancy. Many of the anti-abortion activists also involve their children in the protests. I believe that kids should enjoy their childhoods, rather than handing out leaflets and carrying signs.

While I like the film, there are drawbacks. The audio is only fair; the volume varies, so I kept adjusting it. Also, the filmmakers could have cut 15-20 minutes from the redundant interviews.

The filmmakers deserve credit for allowing the viewer to draw his or her own conclusions. I recommend Unborn in the U.S.A.

As a militantly pro-choice man, I was surprised by my reactions to the film -- particularly to the way it helped me see the sincerity in many of the pro lifers, particularly the young ones, the college kids in the first half of the show, who are my age.

I think all women ought to be educated and able to choose. I felt great sympathy for the girl who reported that she "regrets her abortion" of three years earlier, which, according to her account, she had after being misinformed about the nature of her baby. Any woman who had an abortion and regrets it, wishing she had her child instead, must feel a powerful blend of emotions I will never be able to imagine. The central problem, I think, was that this girl seemed to have limited choice in her abortion. She was not properly informed, and thus, she was unable to make the correct choice. No woman should be forced or manipulated to carry or abort a child.

The central aspect of this movie, I think, is the time spent discussing the visual-assault style of pro-life proselytizing, in which large images of aborted fetuses are displayed with slogans on signs. The organizers of such events defend themselves against both pro-life and pro-choicers who find the images horrendous. The obvious response from the organizers is that "we find them horrendous as well - and that is why they must be seen."

Aside from the contention I would make that a fetus is different than a born human, my central issue with this is that an awful picture of a mangled human body does not inherently mean that the death that body met was painful, unnecessary, or tragic. Take for example a fetus who is going to die upon birth. The tragedy is that the baby is not going to survive. An abortion is not the tragedy. An abortion might be emotionally difficult, but it is not the cause of the emotional difficulty; in fact, it could lessen pain and suffering for the family and the fetus. If you can conceive of a situation in which this would be the case - and I've personally been told by women who have had abortions in such situations - than you have to admit that, while an image of this particular aborted fetus, perhaps broken into pieces, might illicit a violent emotional response, that response is emotional, and says nothing about whether or not the abortion was right or wrong, necessary or unnecessary, etc. etc..

To convince me that abortion ought not be legal in every single case, a pro lifer would need to convince me that women are incapable of making correct decisions for their own well being, that a higher power desires for specific babies to be born, and that living is inherently better than not living. That last one sounds nihilistic, but I have a close friend who was adopted, and wished while growing up to have been aborted, as it would have allowed them to escape their violently abusive adoptive parents. I find it odd when I hear people say "What if you were aborted?" as if it's supposed to affect me. If I was aborted, I'd never exist, and wouldn't care much about the entire issue. Am I missing something?

But, another issue with the assaultive images is best shown in the final scene in the movie. My partner said she would react violently to the images and probably have a panic attack, nightmares for months, and severe depression because of her sensitivity to violent images. She had to not watch most of the parts of the movie that had these images. At what point is a group committing a tort with images? Should it be legal to show violent images to children or to anyone who doesn't want to see them? In any case? What if I just want to do it for fun? What if I wanted to show violent, fake murder images, just for fun? Is that my right, to hand images like that to passersby? The final scene of this show had my partner very upset, because she could see that the woman's response to the images, a visceral, angry response, not to the anti-abortion message, but to the showing of such images, was a response she would share at a very deep level. Such violent images could affect some people for a long time. Is it ethical?

Like some kind of moviemaking magicians, those responsible for "Unborn in the USA" have pulled off quite a remarkable feat of documentary legerdemain. Though obviously pro-choice themselves, instead of launching a diatribe against the pro-life movement, they have allowed those on the other side to speak for themselves in their own words. The result is that the pro-lifers are not reduced to the simpleminded caricatures we so often encounter in media portrayals of them (think of that sweet but rather pathetic and utterly befuddled anti-abortion protestor standing all by herself outside the clinic in "Juno"). Indeed, virtually every person interviewed for the film falls on the pro-life side of the issue and most of them come across as decent, well-intentioned individuals who are willing to put themselves on the line for a cause that means so much to them personally.

Somehow, directors Stephen Fell and Will Thompson were able to gain remarkable insider access to some of the key players in the pro-life movement, including Focus on the Family, a Colorado-based Christian organization that, among other things, trains college students to go forth and spread the pro-life gospel (this is the aspect of FOTF`s ministry on which the movie primarily focuses). Even when the filmmakers interview a member of a group like the Army of God - an organization dedicated to eradicating abortion through any means possible, including violence against clinics and abortion doctors - the directors make sure to counter them with people on the pro-life side who vehemently condemn those actions. The movie also features women who have had abortions and now go around the country voicing their regret.

In fact, so potent and powerful are the images that one begins to wonder if the movie might not in actuality be a product of the pro-life movement sent out as a kind of Trojan Horse to lure the unwary to their side. Indeed, the filmmakers stay almost entirely offstage in this film, voicing their own pro-choice opinions only in the title cards that are frequently interspersed between interviews.

"Unborn in the USA" functions almost like a Rorschach-blot test for pro-lifers and pro-choicers, since viewers on both sides of the issue may be able to project their own beliefs onto the movie and have them reaffirmed by what they witness here. It's a tricky gamble Fell and Thompson have taken with their approach, but the result is a thought-provoking and challenging movie that definitely cries out to be seen.

It was with great anticipation and expectation that I partook of "Unborn in the USA" - a thought-provoking, insightful presentation about our nation's most divisive social issue.

As a woman whose long and tortured journey has hardly been unfettered, I welcomed the opportunity to observe the filmmakers as they presented proponents of both sides of the abortion debate. I wished to be challenged, touched and informed. None of us is omnipotent or infallible enough to be unmovable, in my opinion.

For the most part, the producers succeeded. However, they committed one cardinal sin here: allotting inordinate amounts of screen time to the undeserving - on both sides. The eerie sight (and even more repugnant sound) of the Reverend Don Spitz drives this point home with some ferocity. An advocate of the murder of abortionists and anyone in their path, Spitz reveals some horrifying paradoxes. Just listen to his "sympathy" for Dr. Slepian's widow and children. Their enduring anguish and loss doesn't exactly elicit sympathy. Because he has none. It's an ugly moment - from an even uglier man - and it's skin-crawlingly dreadful.

Then there's the loathsome Jonathan O'Toole from 2004's March for Women's Lives - doing his best to buttress the assumption that pro-life extremists don't care about women or their fetuses. (Just for the record, O'Toole stated in a 2000 documentary ("Soldiers in the Army of God") that he "keeps himself clean" by avoiding women. Strong proponent for life - I must say.

The pro-choice cheerleaders in this piece don't fare all that much better. There's the college student who, between screaming like a howler monkey in heat, tells a well-meaning pro-lifer that he's been involved in "dozens of abortions.....it's neat.....it's funny!" Whether he was being facetious or not isn't really the point. Ask any woman who's had an abortion; she'll tell you it's one really, really unfunny life event, pro-choice or not.

Moving upward amidst the cacophony, there's the familiar sight of Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life. The kindly young cleric, from whose sermons I still find some measure of truth, exudes some troubling behavior here. The widows of murdered abortionists and their staffs probably won't be comforted by Pavone's airy and arrogant dismissals ("these events are SO rare") or his assertions that pro-choice folk and Paul Hill are spiritually akin.

Gag me, if you will, on those two proclamations - and gag me again for good measure. This is unfortunate indeed, and it's not exactly something I expected from a well-known priest of my former faith. Succinctly, Pavone's dismissals (and the statements of other pro-life activists regarding murder in the name of God) sound murky. My brow remains furrowed - and my heart troubled.

Curiously, the activism apparent in my own city (an enclave dubbed "The Abortion Capital of the World") is given scant screen time. Inscrutably, Operation Rescue's Troy Newman and Jeff Herzog are allotted little time - but their dignity and even tones are a grateful distraction from the likes of Spitz, O'Toole and other magpies.

Against this mournful backdrop, two women in this film remain in my memory: A college student who was raped at 13 and whose abortion draws disdainful interrogation from purported "pro-lifers"; and 2) A representative from the Silent No More campaign, who tearfully laments the three-year anniversary of her abortion. I am overwhelmed for both of them and want to envelop both in my arms and offer all the kindness and empathy that my savaged soul can still impart.

I challenge any viewer of this excellent DVD to observe these two women - and compare their angst with the screeches of the hysterical. Do extremists on either side of this debate exude love and commonality for these two women? In my view, the answer is a resounding "no."

Until reasonable, compassionate and honest debate is attendant to this searing issue, acrimony will continue. Because it does continue, many of us who have had abortions do not speak publicly of our travails. I hate being deemed an assassin as much as I deplore being termed a hypocrite for my difficulties with this moral conundrum.

Let us heed Christ's command to love another. Let us not allow hatred to feed on itself like a malignant, expansive cancer - enacting a corrosive toll on our own perceptions and realities. That is the task before all of us - and this poignant DVD is a step in the right direction.

Playing up to the megalomania of Spitz and his murderous cabal (The Army of God) is not.

I agree with Rev. Don Spitz about having no sympathy for those who murdered children a.k.a. do Mass Baby Genocides and yes I am Pro-Life in other words I am Against Abortion. I am NOT a Pedophile but there is somethings I do not understand about the U.S.A.'s Government for EXAMPLE I can Kill babyies by using Abortion but I can not have sex with a five year old to thirteen year old baby girl or baby boy that is confusing mixup confusion. That woman that got arrested in the end of this documentary is a Daughter of Satan! The Holy Bible's verse in Exodus 20:13 says: Thou shalt NOT Kill. The whole United States of America's Government including the President(s) from President Barack Hussein Obama II to future Presidents of the U.S.A. should see Unborn in the USA: Inside the War on Abortion. This is a thinking documentary and a need to see documentary.