I went to the “Gosnell” movie last week with my wife and a neighbor. Not many people were in the theater early on a Thursday evening. It was about one-quarter full. Mostly older people and a few seeming to be family members, filed in as we did.
The thing that struck me about the movie was the apparent division in attitude there is with people regarding abortion. It looks like it breaks three ways.
“Pro-life” people have taken a position based on personal experience, history, religion, and revulsion at the taking of innocent life. You can be pro-life and still be very comfortable with the demise of Whitey Bulger for instance.
People who refer to themselves with the soft label often call themselves “pro-choice.” That label, like the labels “gay” and “straight,” do not exactly describe the issue at hand.
Just as there is a wide gap in the difference between Bulger and an unborn child with distinct DNA and a beating heart, the movie shows there is a wide gap between supporters of abortion.
In the Gosnell movie, you can see the all-encompassing desire to use that “right” to abort an unborn child by some of the people portrayed in the film. There is a burning desire to protect what they consider a fundamental constitutional right wielded over others to the point laws and common decency are to be ignored, and no legal consequences are to be feared. That mindset is what leads to Gosnell committing, not just murder – but atrocities.
I think the casual pro-choice proponent needs to acknowledge that letting abortion become an accepted norm has resulted in these predictable consequences. Gosnell isn’t the only abortionist pushing the envelope. There has never been a movie about clinics selling baby parts. Maybe there should be.
The fear of a political backlash by the rabid pro-abortion lobby, as opposed to the feel-good pro-choice crowd, is what let Gosnell almost get away with his crimes. Local officials helped him. The press helped him. But by far, the “choice” crowd gave Gosnell free reign because they never really made one. Standing back and criticizing both sides looks shameless in this regard.
You can choose to be one of the three groups, pro-life, pro-choice, or pro-abortion, but as in the movie when ordinary people who did not want to be involved become involved by seeing first-hand the predictable dark side of this so-called right, minds and lives are changed.
I can’t imagine the pro-abortion activists are comfortable with this movie still being in theaters. That is a good thing.