In our final video from Martha Shane and Lana Wilson, they recall how their perceived inexperience ended up being an asset in the filming of After Tiller:
The documentary, which features the four remaining doctors who still perform third-trimester abortions in the wake of George Tiller’s assassination, opens today in Los Angeles and Toronto. It will continue to play in New York until October 8 and then open in many more cities across the country. Trailer here. Martha and Lana’s previous Dish videos are here. Our “It’s So Personal” series, in which readers share their experiences with late-term abortion, is here. Another reader writes:
I worked on a response to your abortion dissent, but a followup reader said it so much better than I ever could:
Is abortion ever immoral? This pro-choice advocate says: Of course it is. But there are many immoral things that are not illegal, and imposing the blunt instrument of the law on a complex moral decision is not going to help people make better choices. The sooner pro-life activists take legal bans off the table, the sooner we can have productive talks about effective programs to help people make better moral choices about abortion and reproductive issues generally.
I have a story to go with that comment.
Many years ago I lived in a house with multiple roommates. We selected a seemingly charming, successful graduate student to fill a vacancy, but within months it was clear she was seriously disturbed. Any number of things (e.g., polite requests to clean up weeks worth of dirty dishes or to allow someone else to watch TV) triggered abusive, screaming diatribes and implied threats of violence. We were so freaked out we all decided to move until one brave soul convinced us to band together and boot her out. She smashed holes in the walls the day she left. If it happened today, I’d worry that she’d return with a gun.
During the year this woman lived with us, she had two abortions. She also told us she was sloppy with contraception and had had several abortions in the past. It’s easy to argue that these abortions were immoral, but should that translate into law? Do we want to force a woman like this (who might be unwilling to give up a child) to bear unwanted children at risk for serious abuse? I’m uncomfortable when the left discusses abortion in terms of rights and when the right discusses it in terms of morality. It’s so much more complicated than that.
The Dish 