Roe v. Wade
My main source for my goal is the Movie Roe v. Wade. I was watching the movie and something that really confused and irritated me was at around the 45-minute mark. There were six people in a meeting room discussing about abortions. Dr. Bernard Nathanson who is one of the main characters fighting to legalize abortion gets very angry towards one of the members.
As the member board says that the doctors will be limited to only 20 abortions a day as a quota to respect. This was a tactic from the board to limit abortions and to make the process longer for the women as they must schedule an appointment.
In this very scene, Dr. Bernard Nathanson argues with the board member saying that a doctor should not be “denying a women’s healthcare”. In this very scene, he gets very emotional as the reason why he is doing abortions is about his experience he had with one of his first girlfriend when she was pregnant.
He goes on to talk about how they’ve been calling him names because he fights for abortion, but he takes pride in it, he starts to tear, he starts to raise his voice and look at everyone in the meeting in the eyes because of his past experiences. He hates that he must deny access to women who need to get an abortion.
But Dr. Bernard Nathanson was not going to let them take over him, he asked a person called Larry to leak the information to the press about what they said. As the quotas were not official but were to set a limit to the doctors it was fair game to leak and get the people in the meeting room in trouble. The New York Times magazine medicine section wrote a three-column article on this and the next day the quota was removed. It was also later found that the board member was paid to put in place the quotas.
To get the publics' attention on legalizing abortions Dr. Nathanson goes on to say to a reporter that one million illegal abortions in America and that ten thousand women are dying every year because of the risk that they are taking. Which got the National Right to Life movement really upset.
This part of the movie really hit me because it shows that the doctor who is risking his reputation and medical license is risking everything to fight for what he believes in and that his personal experience is the fire behind his actions. Dr. Bernard Nathanson is lying about statistics that cannot be verified to get people to stop illegal abortions ways and to legalize abortion.
Here is a clip of the movie when the news announce that 1 million illegal abortions and 10,000 women are dying every year. This clip is powerful as at the end as we see the pro-life movement leader get upset. https://vimeo.com/623053892
Citation: Loeb, N. and Allyn, C. (directors). (2021). Roe v. Wade. [Film]. P&J; Producers Capital Fund
