Product Details

• Actors: Steve Wagner, David Lee, Peggy Hartshorn, Joe Scheidler, John Brockhoeft
• Directors: Stephen Fell, Will Thompson
• Format: Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: FIRST RUN FEATURES
• DVD Release Date: October 23, 2007
• Run Time: 105 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000U95N9O
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #81,451 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Revealing and dramatic! Allows the pro-life activists a fair opportunity to tell their own story in their own way. --New York Sun

Product Description

Provocative and bracing, UNBORN IN THE USA provides a riveting look into the deep secrets and deep pockets of the pro-life movement.

Traveling across 35 states, the filmmakers are granted unprecedented access to pro-life groups, movement icons, fund-raising machines, and even into classes where university students are being groomed to carry empathetic, pro-life messages to campuses around the country. More than 70 exclusive interviews are interwoven with astonishing archival footage and startling street confrontations to document one of the most controversial social movements in American history.

With their 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade the Supreme Court affirmed a woman's constitutional right to privacy. In response to that landmark ruling, a new movement-- dedicated to criminalizing abortion-- was born. Now, more than 30 years later, with President George W. Bush's conservative appointments to the Supreme Court, Roe v. Wade teeters on the brink of reversal.

UNBORN IN THE USA asks and answers the question, "In the struggle for dominance over a woman's right to privacy, who wins?"

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Objective Look At The Anti-Abortion Movement, October 27, 2007

By	Chris Luallen (Nashville, Tennessee) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Looking at the Right to Life from Both Sides Now - and it's not always pretty, November 29, 2007

By	Catholic No More "music maven" (Wichita, KS) - See all my reviews

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.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Brilliant Film - Must Have for All College Campuses, November 27, 2007

By	Scott Dunford "S. Dunford" (Mount Berry, Ga.) - See all my reviews

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.