CPAC 2021-Film Review: Roe v. Wade Brings Facts on the Abortion Ruling Not Formerly in Evidence

CPAC 2021 was the perfect place to premiere this film, focused on the actual case of Roe v. Wade, the domino that felled anti-abortion laws in individual states, and enshrined abortion on demand for the entire nation.

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Director and co-writer Nick Loeb (who also acts in the film), reveals the motivations, methods, and manipulations that helped produce the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision, and I believe his team succeeded in that regard.

There were facts presented of which I was not aware, like the fact that right to privacy enshrined in the 9th Amendment, and the protections and due process for all people enshrined in the 14th Amendment were  primary drivers on which the decision was hinged.

Another case that was part of the decision was Doe v. Bolton, that the ACLU was arguing before the Court. The Justices overturned this Georgia law which prohibited abortions except when necessary to preserve a woman’s life or health or in cases of fetal abnormality or rape. The Court held the Georgia law “unconstitutional because it imposed too many restrictions and interfered with a woman’s right to decide, in consultation with her physician, to terminate her pregnancy”. This overturning of the law was pivotal to the institution of Roe v. Wade.

As explained on the ACLU website about the case,

“The Supreme Court famously invalidated the law in 1973 on the ground that the constitutional right to privacy encompasses a woman’s decision whether or not to continue her pregnancy. Characterizing this right as ‘fundamental’ to a woman’s ‘life and future,’ the Court held that the state could not interfere with the abortion decision unless it had a compelling reason.”

To silence detractors, The Roe v. Wade movie website backs up the dramatizations in the movie with its own Fact-Check sheet, which is quite comprehensive.

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Roe v. Wade the movie is very much a heroes and villains story, told through the eyes of the main protagonist, Dr. Bernard Nathanson. Nathanson is the Hero figure, while the Catholic Church, which has been on the forefront of the fight for Life since before the Roe case was decided, are cast as the Villains. The viewpoint of the Church was represented in a few of the characters, but its voice was encapsulated in the character of Dr. Mildred Jefferson, played by Stacey Dash. Dr. Jefferson was the first Black woman to graduate Harvard Medical School and Harvard’s School of Surgery. Dr. Jefferson makes a perfect foil, not only because she is a doctor just like Nathanson, but she is a Black woman.

In 2003, Dr. Jefferson was profiled in the pro-life publication, The American Feminist. She said,

“I am at once a physician, a citizen and a woman, and I am not willing to stand aside and allow this concept of expendable human lives to turn this great land of ours into just another exclusive reservation where only the perfect, the privileged and the planned have the right to live.”

As the story unfolds, it is revealed that one of the strategies used by Dr. Nathanson and Larry Lader, who helped co-found NARAL, was to paint Catholics as the villain against the heroic doctors and lawyers who just wanted to preserve women’s life and health.

Just as the NAACP did in the 1950s: focus on targeted cases to erode segregation and the uncivil and unconstitutional treatment of Black people, so the ACLU and NARAL did the same. Their targeted cases were meant to erode the opposition and laws that restricted abortion access.

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Roe v. Wade exposes the grandiose goals of the pro-abortion cause, the egos, the hypocrisy, and the hidden agendas that we are just now discovering through the writings, books, interviews, and other documentation on the people behind the movement. The term, “The Greater Good”, is tossed around in the film quite a bit, usually out of the mouth of the abortion advocates. As many of us well know, this term has been used by individuals, and national, and global entities seeking to justify what ultimately end up being horrors; this would include the current horrors of the COVID lockdowns. So, any alliance with this Utilitarian phrase is a clear indication of evil intent, no matter how benignly it is presented or applied.

In Dr. Nathanson’s 1996 autobiography, The Hand of God, he confesses his own heartlessness in performing abortions:

“I swear to you, I had no feelings aside from the sense of accomplishment, the pride of expertise.”

However, Dr. Nathanson’s journey culminates with his realization of the evils he has participated in by building the structure that allowed abortions to become enshrined into national law, and his active role in murdering babies by performing the act. After using ultrasound technology to facilitate the ease of abortions, Dr. Nathanson goes from ceasing to perform abortions, to completely rejecting the pro-abortion ideology he helped to embed into society.

In 1985, Nathanson used the then-current ultrasound technology to produce a documentary film, called The Silent Scream. We have so become anesthetized to violent images, but back then the graphic detail of the murder of a 12-week-old fetus through a suction abortion was quite horrific, and it energized the cause of the pro-life movement. Dr. Nathanson had made his move away from the pro-abortion movement, and he used the footage to describe the facts of fetal development and to make the case for the humanity and dignity of the child in the womb. At one point, viewers see the child draw back from the surgical instrument and open his mouth. Dr. Nathanson then narrates, “This is the silent scream of a child threatened imminently with extinction.”

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Ultrasound technology, that has allowed doctors to more effectively do abortions, was ultimately Dr. Nathanson’s undoing, and could be part of the death industry’s undoing. In 2020, both Utah and Missouri floated laws requiring that any woman seeking an abortion first have an ultrasound performed. Other states may well follow suit.

Where the filmmakers lack finesse, they make up for it by presenting the case that what we hear and read about the controversial Roe decision was built on a foundation of lies. Some quality acting from Jon Voight, Robert Davi, Corbin Benson, Stacey Dash, and Jamie Kennedy, among others, helps to move this compelling story forward. I am staunchly pro-life, but it drove me to do more research on the actual decision, as well as the people involved. I found The Constitution Law Center to be a good, unbiased analysis on the case and its effects.

If a pro-choice person maintains an open mind, they too may choose to dig into the facts, rather than accepting the ideology presented.

Dr. Bernard Nathanson died in 2011. Formerly an atheist, because of his embrace of Life, he befriended the Catholics he once demonized, and ultimately was baptized into the faith. Robert P. George eulogized Nathanson in The Public Discourse, and talked about a discussion he had with Dr. Nathanson about how he came to believe in Life. Dr. Nathanson said that it was his embrace of The Truth that brought him to his embrace of Life. George came to this conclusion:

“Our task is less to defeat our opponents than to win them to the cause of life. To be sure, we must oppose the culture and politics of death resolutely and with a determination to win. But there is no one—no one—whose heart is so hard that he or she cannot be won over. Let us not lose faith in the power of our weapons to transform even the most resolute abortion advocates.”

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The film effectively shows this, and can be used as a tool to ground people in truth.

The sponsors and producers of the film will do virtual and live screenings through April 26th. The film will be available for Streaming and digital starting in April.

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