Civia Tamarkin’s upcoming documentary “Birthright: A War Story” depicts the so-called pro-life campaign for what it really is: an assault on women’s reproductive choices. For many anti-choice activists, outlawing abortion is not enough; being pro-life means criminalizing miscarriages, ignoring a woman’s opinions and needs during her own pregnancy, telling women when they are allowed to stop having children, and prioritizing a fetus’ health over the mother’s. As the doc’s press materials say, “This is the real-life ‘Handmaid’s Tale.’”
“It is a very scary time in the United States right now for a woman to become pregnant,” one of the characters states in the “Birthright” trailer. “Every aspect [of pregnancy] is now being subject to state punishment, control, and surveillance,” another interviewee adds. Suddenly Gilead doesn’t sound quite so dystopian.
Although “Birthright” appears to be firmly in the pro-choice camp, it also makes a bipartisan argument for reproductive rights. “The state has the right to intervene in a woman’s life from the second she becomes pregnant,” a character points out. “That’s an intrusion in the life of an individual that should shock every true conservative in this country.” If the United States treating pregnant women like they are objects doesn’t terrify you, maybe the government overstepping its position and forcing its way into an individual’s life will.
More than anything else, the “Birthright” trailer shows that this is an issue that affects everyone. “The last time this country dealt with an issue of this dynamic, we shot each other to doll rags on the Civil War battlefield,” an interviewee comments.
Written by Tamarkin and Luchina Fisher, “Birthright” opens July 14 in New York. A wider release will follow.
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