Pro-Life Movie Based on Botched Abortion Will Play at Cannes Film Festival

International   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Apr 19, 2010   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Pro-Life Movie Based on Botched Abortion Will Play at Cannes Film Festival

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
April 19
, 2010

Cannes, France (LifeNews.com) — A movie about a baby born alive after a failed abortion is set to premier at the upcoming Cannes Film Festival in May. The film "22 Weeks" tells the true story of a baby aborted alive in an Orlando, Florida abortion center in 2005 and director Ángel Soto has announced the 22-minute picture will air at the respected event.

A woman named Angele sued an Orlando abortion business in April 2005 for allowing a newborn child to die after she gave birth to the child.

Angele alleged the abortion facility refused to call emergency personnel and that staff at the abortion facility refused to help Angele or her baby, born on the second day of a two-day abortion procedure.

They also charged that Harry Perper, the abortion practitioner who began the abortion process, and James Pendergraft, the abortion business owner, violated state law.

Jill Stanek, who worked with Soto during the 2008 election campaign to promote the film in her effort to expose Barack Obama’s votes against an Illinois bill to protect babies who survive botched abortions, said getting 22 Weeks aired during Cannes is "quite a breakthrough."

"22 Weeks dramatizes the true story of a mother whose baby was horrifically aborted alive," Stanek explained. She said staff at the abortion facility "turned ambulance workers away at the door, who the mother had called for help from the bathroom where she delivered when staff refused to give her baby emergency medical care."

"This is great news. The horror of late-term abortions and abandoned survivors will now reach a worldwide audience," Stanek added. "Well deserved congratulations to Ángel."

The Cannes appearance and the possibility of more awards would add to the ones 22 Weeks has already won, Stanek explained. They include winning Angel Awards 2009; won Silver Angel Telly Awards 2009; won Bronze Telly Redemptive Film Festival 2009; won Best Storytelling 2do FICCAG 2009; won Best Int’ Short, Best Nat’ Short, People’s Choice.

Should 22 Weeks come away with any honors it would be a juxtaposition to the 2007 winner. The Romanian film "4 months, 3 weeks, 2 days" portrayed the plight of a student trying to get an illegal abortion in the days Communists controlled the country.

The film won the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival but media portrayals of the victory said nothing of how abortion has become a means of birth control there.

A 2004 pro-abortion movie, Vera Drake, had been rejected by the Cannes festival, though it won several other awards.

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