getty abortions

What images do we associate with abortion and why? Where do these images and the emotional scripts in our head come from? How do they influence women who (want to) have an abortion, how do they shape the general discussion? Franzis Kabisch’s personal desktop documentary investigates these questions with great precision, clarity and humour (yes, humour, too!).

Abortion: Stories from North and South

Women have always sought ways to terminate unwanted pregnancies, despite powerful patriarchal structures and systems working against them. This film provides a historical overview of how church, state and the medical establishment have determined policies concerning abortion. From this cross-cultural survey--filmed in Ireland, Japan, Thailand, Peru, Colombia, and Canada--emerges one reality: only a small percentage of the world's women has access to safe, legal operations.

Backroom Troubles

Women talk about the circumstances that drove them to seek illegal abortions and the often traumatic result. Interwoven with historical photographs and newsreel footage, the stories expose how the reality of women's lives were counterposed to what was socially and morally expected of them.

A Quiet Inquisition

At a public hospital in Nicaragua, Ob/Gyn Dr. Carla Cerrato must choose between following a law that bans all abortions and endangers her patients or taking a risk and providing the care that she knows can save a woman's life. In 2007, Dr. Cerrato’s daily routine took a detour. The newly elected government of Daniel Ortega, a former Marxist revolutionary who converted to Catholicism to win votes, overturned a 130-year-old law protecting therapeutic abortion. The new law entirely prohibits abortion, even in cases of rape, incest, or when a woman’s life is at stake. As Carla and her colleagues navigate this dangerous dilemma, the impact of this law emerges—illuminating the tangible reality of prohibition against the backdrop of a political, religious, and historically complex national identity. The emotional core of the story—the experiences and situations of the young women and girls who are seeking care—illustrate the ethical implications of one doctor's response.

Мамино письмо

The mother and daughter face the question of whether to keep the pregnancy or terminate it. Both are under pressure from relatives, friends, and doctors. Both are going through a difficult decision-making process. Each episode of the artistic part shows the life circumstances and the path that a woman in a crisis situation goes through. In documentary inserts, representatives of various professions (psychologists, lawyers, gynecologists, clergymen) tell how they face the problem of abortion in their lives.

Jane: An Abortion Service

This fascinating political look at a little-known chapter in women's history tells the story of "Jane", the Chicago-based women's health group who performed nearly 12,000 safe illegal abortions between 1969 and 1973 with no formal medical training. As Jane members describe finding feminism and clients describe finding Jane, archival footage and recreations mingle to depict how the repression of the early sixties and social movements of the late sixties influenced this unique group. Both vital knowledge and meditation on the process of empowerment, Jane: An Abortion Service showcases the importance of preserving women's knowledge in the face of revisionist history. JANE: AN ABORTION SERVICE was funded by the Independent Television Service (ITVS) with funds provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Histoires d'A

French documentary campaigning for the liberalization of abortion and contraception, directed by Charles Belmont and Marielle Issartel in 1973.

Das Experiment 770: Gebären auf Befehl

Procreation is the social duty of all fertile women, was the political thinking during the 1960s and 1970s in Romania. In 1966, Ceaucescu issued Decree 770, in which he forbade abortion for all women unless they were over forty or were already taking care of four children. All forms of contraception were totally banned. The New Romanian Man was born. By 1969, the country had a million babies more than the previous average. Romanian society was rapidly changing. By using very interesting archival footage and excerpts from old fiction films and by interviewing famous personalities from that time – gynecologists or mothers who were part of the new society - the director revives this period of tremendous oppression of personal freedom. Many deaths were caused by the mere fact that women, including wives of secret Romanian agents, famous TV presenters, and actresses, had to undergo illegal abortions. Many women were jailed for having them.

Lesser Choices

The bleached palette and home-movie aesthetics of Super 8 footage provide the image track for this testimonial about an illegal abortion in Mexico City in the 1960s, delivered in voiceover by the filmmaker’s mother. In its account of this intimate and disorienting memory, Lesser Choices summons a time of profound uncertainty—a moment from an era without rights—and offers a warning to the present.

Twenty

Set in a speakeasy in Atlanta, “Twenty” is a feature documentary about fifteen young people making it through 2020. The film is an observational time capsule that lays bare the raw reflections of a group of people surviving a year that will be seared into our generational memory.

Lieber Herr Doktor

Baby Bound

This film is made up of interviews from preteens to adults discussing their thoughts and feelings on sex, relationships, and parenting in relation to teen pregnancy.

Ours to Tell

Four people - Brittany, Hannah, Nick, and Ylonda - tell their stories about how access to abortion in their community helped them empower themselves to lead lives they want to live.

Seeing Allred

Gloria Allred overcame trauma and personal setbacks to become one of the nation’s most famous women’s rights attorneys. Now the feminist firebrand takes on two of the biggest adversaries of her career, Bill Cosby and Donald Trump, as sexual violence allegations grip the nation and keep her in the spotlight.

Babies are Still Murdered Here

The pro-life movement has been around as long as Roe V Wade, who are they, what do they do? Are they effective? This documentary goes into the deep underpinnings of major national lobbyist groups to find out why after 46 years Babies Are Still Murdered Here?

Look Away

Interviews from women involved in the 70's and 80's rock music industry. An examination of the people taking advantage of underage fans and calling for a "Me too" movement in the music world

When Women Won

When Women Won tells the emotional inside story of the Together for Yes campaign to repeal the 8th amendment and change Irish society forever.

Abortion: Desperate Choices

An intensely personal exploration of an explosive issue -- abortion in America. Wrenching first-person narratives from seven decades of women, each one facing an unplanned pregnancy -- and the dreadful decision that no one wants to make. Both pro-life and pro-choice, both out front on the picket line and inside the clinic, these women's stories turn politics into heart-searing drama: a pregnant 17-year-old and her pro-life mother whose conflict unfolds in front of the camera; a 22-year-old who became a pro-life protester when she learned that her mother nearly aborted her; an unhappy mother-of-two who's expecting a third when her marriage suddenly hits the rocks; a 71-year-old grandmother who still grieves for her mother, an early victim of illegal abortion. In this fusion of past and present, the history of abortion is the history of women -- told at a time in America when yesterday's back-alley abortions may be the only choice left for tomorrow.

Contractions

Intimate confessions, paired with experimental choreography outside a woman’s clinic in Memphis, offer a glimpse into post Roe v. Wade America.

AKA Jane Roe

A portrait of Norma McCorvey, the “Jane Roe” whose unwanted pregnancy led to the 1973 case that legalized abortion nationwide, Roe v. Wade. The documentary unravels the mysteries closely guarded by McCorvey throughout her life.