View movie

View thumbnails
Run time: 28:02

Stream (help)

64Kb MPEG4 (dialup)
256Kb MPEG4 (broadband)

Play / Download (help)

(32 MB)64Kb MPEG4
(73 MB)256Kb MPEG4
(247 MB)MPEG1
(2 GB)MPEG2

Resources

Dorothy FadimanWhen Abortion Was Illegal: Untold Stories (1992)

This Academy Award-nominated film features compelling first person accounts which reveal the physical, legal, and emotional consequences during the era when abortion was a criminal act. Remembrances include those of women who experienced illegal abortions, doctors who risked imprisonment and loss of their licenses for providing illegal abortions, and individuals who broke the law by helping women find safe abortions.


This movie is part of the collection: Fadiman Social Documentaries

Director: Dorothy Fadiman
Producer: Dorothy Fadiman, Daniel Meyers
Production Company: Concentric Media
Audio/Visual: sound, color
Keywords: Dorothy Fadiman; Academy Award; Oscar; Concentric Media; reproductive rights; women; women's rights; abortion; abortion laws; abortion legislation; abortion rights; women's history; women's health; personal stories; interviews; reproductive health; reproductive choice; medical issues; health care; medical care; public policy; human rights; doctors; abortion doctors; clergy; back alleys; women's history; illegal abortions; abortionists; Erika Luckett
Contact Information: Distributed by: Bullfrog Films: info@bullfrogfilms.com Women Make Movies: info@wmm.com

Creative Commons license: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs

Individual Files

Write a review
Downloaded 4,595 timesReviews
Average Rating:

Reviewer: vidmonko - - August 31, 2008
Subject: "If there is no God, everything is permissable." (Dostoevski)
And if there is a God, and a moral law derived from him, we're wise taking the pro-life position, since our eternal destiny in heaven or hell may hinge upon it. (See "Pascal, Selections" here at archive, for a good explanation, giving the atheist and agnostic positions their strongest arguments).
I assume that you, the pro-choicer, think that we human beings have human rights. Your position, in fact, is that among the rights a human being has is the right to control one's reproduction. Well, at what point do you think that a human being, with human rights, comes into existence? Is it at birth, or earlier?

Pro-choice people argue that the lack of consensus about when life begins implies that abortion should be legal until birth. By why only until birth? Why not after birth--that is, why do we not allow infanticide? My concern is: what keeps us from legalizing infanticide? Is it only because there happens to be a consensus that infants are human beings with human rights? But what if that consensus should change? And it is not naive to suppose it might change. There have been many cultures throughout history which have condoned infanticide, just as many cultures have condoned slavery and human sacrifice. There are philosophers who have argued that there are no good reasons for favoring abortion but opposing infanticide. And reasoning like that used to support abortion has already been used in many cases to argue for infanticide of Downs Syndrome children.

Reviewer: Geeee - - May 14, 2008
Subject: Think what you want
Think what you want, get as excited as you want, rant and rave all you want, make all the snappy statements you want...that's what freedom is all about.

Just remember:
You DO NOT have the right to decide for me.

Reviewer: larryWF - - February 9, 2008
Subject: When Abortion Was Illegal
If I were king of the world, I'd make it so that baby boys would get a vascetomy at birth (like they do with circumcision). And if and when they're mature and financially stable enough to bring a child into this overpopulated world the procedure would be reversed so they could father a child. Until then, abortion would be free and legal for all.

Reviewer: Lockett - - January 14, 2008
Subject: I'm sick of all this "pro-choice" junk.
"I couldn't have that baby, because if I did, and I died, who would take care of the baby that I had?"

Um...an ORPHANAGE, maybe?

If you wanted to sound compassionate for your kid, don't go all sappy about how it was nicer to them to kill them. That's like Hitler saying that Jews and retards are better off dead because they're inferior. I'm not saying that the old hag was a Nazi, but she used the exact same argument.

"I worked hard, and I sold everything that I had that I could get a few pennies for, and I eventually got my $50 and I went out to see this woman."

Oh, how touching. A lady can't afford killing her kid, so she scrimps and saves until she can. That's a real moving story about how one mother was determined enough to KILL HER BABY! I'm so touched.

>DocHarman

"I am a male medical student at a very conservative medical school. I am extremely thankful for films such as this because it reminds me why I wanted to be a physician — as long as I am alive, women will always have the freedom of choice. This film and the stories with-in, are my motivation and truly keep me going."

Really? Your motivation for becoming a doctor was pre-birth infanticide? Gah.

There really isn't any way around the issue - as Dr. Seuss put it, "A person's a person, no matter how small."

>aaronshaf

"If privacy was the issue then we should let mother abuse their own born children in the privacy of their own homes."

Well-put. Who cares where you sleep? It doesn't matter if it's a crib or a basinet - if you're young enough, you can be killed without consequence. To the killer, that is...

>orlamay

"The issue is freedom of choice, if you are pro-life, that is your choice. If you have made the difficult decision to have an abortion and decide to do so, that is your choice. Once we start dictating to others what they can and can't do under our personal belief systems we are violating the constitution! Where do we draw that line?"

Nobody should use the pro-"choice" argument to defend infanticide. If all that matters is choice, then why do we have laws against murder, rape, etc? Don't criminals have a choice, too?

>kerriganm

"And to criminalize abortion is to take away a woman's ownership of herself"

IT'S NOT HER BODY, any more than Cheng owned Eng's body. If a conjoined twin kills their sibling, it's fratricide. If a pregnant mother kills the baby that needs her umbilical cord because there's no other way to get nutrients, it's infanticide. Duh.

Oh, and apparently nobody in these movies has heard of contraceptives, despite the fact that they were readily available at the time(not prescribed, of course, but easily obtainable).

Reviewer: lvschwer - - December 30, 2007
Subject: 53 Million Unborn Babies Dead and Counting!
53 Million Unborn Babies Dead and Counting since Roe vs Wade! Where are these fellow human beings in the film?

Reviewer: norton67 - - December 15, 2007
Subject: Terrified ?
Russ wasn't too terrified of fatherhood to keep his pecker in his pants.
Still and all this is a pretty good film though. There is a lot to be said for both sides of this issue.

Reviewer: aaronshaf - - December 15, 2007
Subject: Abortion is Unethical
Abortion should not be an issue of privacy. If privacy was the issue then we should let mother abuse their own born children in the privacy of their own homes.

The watershed issue is whether an unborn child is an innocent human being. Woe to those who want it legal to sucks the brains and slaughter and terminate the lives of innocent human beings.

Reviewer: kerriganm - - December 14, 2007
Subject: Very moving, poignant and revealing
This film shows the real cost of criminalizing abortion. It's one of the hardest things in the world to do- no woman is gleeful about having an abortion. But it is also a very necessary right. And to criminalize abortion is to take away a woman's ownership of herself and make her chattel. Ours is the only first-world country that even entertains that as a possibility.

Reviewer: rastamon - - December 13, 2007
Subject: Kippy-Kill-kill-kill !!!!!!
Reviewer: kjp - - September 27, 2006
Subject: No

I think women can make their own choice. you fucks.

Kip has a point, women should have a choice to kill their babies...might i add...up to 5yrs old.
Aye????

Reviewer: LadyBard1964 - - April 7, 2007
Subject: Pro-choice with two children.
Would you prefer to have them aborted or murdered due to neglect? Seriously!!!! Teach girls and boys how to protect themselves so that they don't have to deal with making the CHOICE!

Reviewer: Claeyborn - - April 5, 2007
Subject: American Holocaust-1.5 Million per yr. Have No Voice and No Choice
Those that chose to perform abortions or to receive an abortion had a choice. The unborn babies have no choice. So, forgive me if I don't grieve for those who had a choice.

Reviewer: Telephone Toughguy - - April 4, 2007
Subject: I am not exactly "pro life" or "pro choice"
But condoms have always been available and I don't believe in "unplanned pregnacnies" unless you get raped or something. I got laid plenty and made sure every sperm was accounted for. It was my responsibility as a human. Growing up with the fear of AIDS was more than enough deterrant, let alone child support payments. Come on, it takes two to tango, but the leg bones are connected to the female brain bone. No rubber, no play, no crack babies, ever heard of masterbation?

It's the same with guns. If you see a gun it's loaded, period. There should not be "I thought it was empty" crap and accidental shootings. When you see a gun, it is loaded and you treat it that way. Don't point it at yourself, or others (unless they piss you off). Take this principal and apply it to sex. Presume that this load is a baby if I let it go into my vagina, I should use a condom, and WHAM! no more "unplanned pregnancies".

And forget the "heat of the moment" crap and "it doesn't feel the same". Your life is worth more than a moment and how would you know what unprotected sex felt like unless you were stupid enough or catholic enough to do it?
There is no excuse for bringing a baby into the world unless you are prepared to take care of it. We require marriage licenses but anyone can have a kid? No IQ tests? No competency tests? Background checks? We obviously do not care about kids enough.

Abortion may not be evil against god but it is a careless waste of time, money and fetuses by someone who was irresponsible and selfish for the 30 seconds it takes to put a condom on a penis. Please, this will be the stupid issue that scares all the retarded religious people away from the only republican capable of saving us from the impending clintonian era...

Here's one to think about...

Should same sex marriage partners be able to terminate the pregnancy of surrogate mother?

Rudy in 08... for allah's sake.

Reviewer: prof55 - - March 7, 2007
Subject: A touching display of emotions,
but isn't it sad that those babies aren't represented in this movie? Of course, they can't be - they were killed.

The first statement in the movie says it all -

Doctor: "I told you not to get pregnant"
Patient: "But you didn't tell me how not to..."

Two possible situations here:

1. The woman does not know what causes pregnancy.

2. The woman DOES know, but claims that having sex is her inalienable right, and that it must have no consequences that could endanger her plans.

That's really what it's all about - the "right" to do whatever you please. Sorry, the world isn't made that way. Certain acts have certain consequences, and those who perform those acts have a responsibility that is unavoidable.

It seems the more innocent the victim, the easier it is for these types to take advantage. If a child got the last ticket for a movie you wanted to see, would you kill them? There is no difference.

Reviewer: orlamay - - January 6, 2007
Subject: Don't confuse the issue.
In general people that are pro-choice are not pro-abortion. The issue is that each of us as an individual has the right to choose. There are radicals on both sides of the issue, ones who use abortion as if it were a form of birth control, and ones who kill doctors who perform abortions (try to understand that rational!). In each case, it is wrong.

The issue is freedom of choice, if you are pro-life, that is your choice. If you have made the difficult decision to have an abortion and decide to do so, that is your choice. Once we start dictating to others what they can and can't do under our personal belief systems we are violating the constitution! Where do we draw that line?

What if I said you couldn't practice your religion?

Reviewer: kjp - - September 27, 2006
Subject: No
I think women can make their own choice. you fucks.

Reviewer: AlecWest - - July 30, 2006
Subject: a moderate viewpoint
As heartwrenching as this film was, it is equally heartwrenching to hear the stories of women who regret their decisions to abort. I've always been puzzled by one thing, however.

In Basic Biology 101, we were taught that when a sperm and egg unite - and after that first cell divides - the result is a unique lifeform, different from either parent. And if that lifeform is human, you have human life. I'm surprised that the scientific community hasn't jumped onboard the pro-life wagon since, religion aside, science and religion are in complete agreement on the definition of life.

Even so, and though it flies in the face of scientific logic, I'm in favor of a woman's right to choose - with one proviso. Assuming we're talking about conception done the old-fashioned way, there are two parents who have a stake in the child's future - a mother AND a father. And though a father doesn't physically bear the child, the child in part bears characteristics of the father. So, somewhere in this mix, I think a father's opinion should count for something.

Reviewer: PianoWizard.com - - June 8, 2006
Subject: What about Jane Roe?
My understanding is that "Jane Roe" of Roe v Wade fame is now an adamant opponent to abortion.

Anyone ever seen a poll of women who aborted their fetuses as to their current mental well-being? I never have. It would make an equally interesting video.

Reviewer: FP - - June 14, 2005
Subject: Top-notch documentary
This shows why the noxious christian right should keep their blue noses out of womens' uteruses. The decision is hard enough to make without some bible-clutching loon trying to whack you over the head with a aborted baby jesus placard.

Reviewer: Former Fetus - - June 14, 2005
Subject: Abortion is better than adoption?
It is so clear that the women are grieving and battling with their consciences over what they did. They are clearly in denial, specially the woman who tries to make herself believe that abortion is better than abortion.

It is pathetic that in the most advanced society in the history of humanity people think they can't afford a child. These people were misled and I am sure they know it deep down.

I hope they find reconciliation.

Reviewer: DocHarman - - May 28, 2005
Subject: Moving
I am a male medical student at a very conservative medical school. I am extremely thankful for films such as this because it reminds me why I wanted to be a physicianÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ as long as I am alive, women will always have the freedom of choice. This film and the stories with-in, are my motivation and truly keep me going. DHarman@WVSOM.edu