A new HBO film featuring women's personal reflections on abortion premiered on Monday at the Tribeca Film Festival, the Los Angeles Times reports.
According to the Times, the documentary, called "Abortion: Stories Women Tell," will air on HBO and in theaters. It is HBO's third film focusing on abortion rights.
Documentary details
Tracy Droz Tragos, who filmed the documentary, said she wanted to highlight women's voices in the debate over abortion rights. She focused the film on women living in Missouri, where, according to the Times, a woman seeking abortion care is required to receive pre-abortion counseling and then wait 72 hours before accessing care, even in instances of rape or incest. The state has only one clinic, located in St. Louis, that provides non-emergency abortion care.
For the documentary, Droz Tragos interviewed 81 women involved in the debate over abortion rights, including politicians, physicians and patients, as well as supporters and opponents of abortion rights. The film includes reflections from 32 women of varying races and ages.
Featured reflections
One of the women featured in the film, Te'Aundra, shares her experiences with an unintended pregnancy at 19. She did not have the financial resources or access to health care services necessary to obtain abortion care, and the man involved in the pregnancy rejected her subsequent plan to place the child for adoption. As a result, Te'Aundra was forced to give up her basketball scholarship at Kentucky State University to care for the infant.
Amie, another woman in the documentary, explains her reasons for seeking an abortion while the film follows her efforts to reach an abortion clinic located at the border between Missouri and Illinois. Amie, a mother of two who has two jobs, said, "There's no way I can physically carry a baby and work ... And there's no way I can cut my hours because I need my hours to raise my kids that I have right now."
Other women featured in the film include Sarah, a woman seeking abortion care after learning her fetus has a fatal anomaly, and Barb, who had an abortion to continue her education and who now is a nurse with 40 years of experience.
Erin King, a gynecologist who spoke at the premiere, said the film's inclusion of both abortion-rights supporters and opponents "made me feel more strongly that choice is really important and being able to choose -- whether you're going to have an abortion or not have an abortion -- that choice has got to be there."
Comments
Droz Tragos said, "We wanted to look at abortion from a personal place that was different from the way it was approached before." She explained, "Women's voices were not a part of the debate. I felt like advocates and politicians primarily had the floor and the loudest voices. So we thought, let's go talk to women." Droz Tragos said she hoped the film would "bring a little more compassion to the conversation and ... a little more understanding of how each woman comes to this private, personal decision."
According to Droz Tragos, the most difficult aspect of filming the documentary was finding women willing to share their thoughts and experiences on abortion rights. She explained, "It's a very private thing -- especially in Missouri where I think there's an extra dose of stigma and shame ... It's incredibly courageous that these women came forward at all."
Droz Tragos added, "The women who talked often had a very clear intention. They felt bullied. They felt like their voices were not being heard. And they wanted to make it easier somehow for other women who would follow -- it was for other women not to feel so alone."
Separately, Sheila Nevins, president of documentary films at HBO, said, "We wanted to present a case for personal decision-making and a wom[a]n's right to her own body." She added, "It's her body, and she can choose to take the next step all by herself. She doesn't need laws; she doesn't need help. She needs laws protecting her from other people making decisions about her body" (Fung, Los Angeles Times, 4/19).
