Pregnancy Center Group: HBO Abortion Film 12th and Delaware Inaccurate
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
August 3, 2010
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Care Net, a national network of 1,100 pregnancy centers, is taking issue with the content of the new HBO documentary "12th and Delaware." The documentary portrays abortion through the eyes of two filmmakers who dramatize the work of a pregnancy center and an abortion business in Ft. Pierce, Florida.
The organization tells LifeNews.com appear more interested in sensationalizing the issues and gaining viewers than offering an accurate portrayal of how pregnancy centers help women considering an abortion.
"While Oscar-nominated filmmakers Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing may have set out to accurately depict the work of these two ‘sides’ of the abortion issue, they clearly did not do the necessary background work of a good documentarian or journalist," says the group in a statement.
"Neither Care Net nor any other national pregnancy center organization was contacted, to our knowledge, by these filmmakers for any information. Without more research or interviews with other centers across the nation, how could these filmmakers faithfully portray this movement of approximately 2,300 centers?" it added.
Care Net officials say the filmmakers relied on tired stereotypes of pro-life advocates when putting together their focus on pregnancy centers.
"The overall perception that the filmmakers concoct of the pregnancy center and pro-lifers in general is in the style of many 1980’s journalists, who ran sound bites of ‘angry, white, male’ pro-life protestors and lumped the entire pro-life movement in with them. That’s inaccurate and it’s propaganda," the group said.
The HBO documentary 12th and Delaware also presents a false picture of sidewalk counselors who help women outside abortion centers, the group says.
"Those sidewalk counselors in the film that used hateful or fear-based rhetoric to dissuade women from choosing abortion are misguided and hurt the pro-life cause. The pro-life movement has compassion for both the woman and the child. That means that if a woman chooses abortion, she still needs our compassion and help," says Care Net.
Although the Ft. Pierce pregnancy center featured is not an affiliate of Care Net, officials with the national network say it is being targeted by abortion advocates in an effort to smear their reputation and deter women from visiting them for help.
"Groups like NARAL perpetuate the notion that pregnancy centers are scary places that use ‘shock and awe’ tactics to somehow trick women into carrying their pregnancy to term. That couldn’t be further from the truth," CareNet said. "Sadly, ’12th and Delaware’ fits in with that strategy."
Officials say almost every woman who walks through the doors of a pregnancy center usually remembers the visit by saying something like: "That was the first time, in a long time, that I felt like someone really cared about me."
Related web sites:
Care Net – https://www.care-net.org
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