Students for Life of America, the nation’s largest pro-life youth organization that serves more than 1,100 college and high school pro-life groups, is showing the multiple award-winning documentary, HUSH, on more than 105 college and medical school campuses on March 23rd. in order to start a conversation about the well-documented and long-term health risks associated with abortion that are presented in the internationally acclaimed film.
A partial list of participating schools is listed here.
“The film is specifically about opening up a healthy conversation on women’s reproductive health and providing correct information that women are entitled to have if they are considering abortion,” said Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America. “It’s being screened at colleges and universities because it’s these women who are the largest demographic who may be suffering from complications from abortions and it’s at these educational institutions that thoughtful and fair consideration in the pursuit of truth is still king.”
Director Punam Kumar Gill, who is pro-choice, went into this project on a mission to investigate the controversy surrounding abortion’s effects on women, and wound up investigating health risks related to her own late-term miscarriage.
“This is not a political film, it’s a women’s health film that is packed with important information about breast cancer, premature birth, miscarriage, pregnancy and abortion, that every audience member will learn something from,” said Joses Martin, Producer of HUSH. “But it does come out with some very controversial findings that refute supposedly conclusive statements made by international health organizations.”
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“I think this screening will present a much-needed opportunity to foster discussion about abortion and women’s health, while enabling viewers to recognize that the political rhetoric (on both sides) obscures important information,” said Anya Hong, President of Brown University Students for Life. “Students at Brown are intellectually curious and the film’s slogan of ‘pro-information’ has the potential to appeal to many of the students on campus. Our goal in providing a screening of the movie is to clear the politics surrounding the issue and to allow everyone on our campus to work towards a common goal – providing pro-woman, pro-health, and pro-human resources.”
Certainly the volatile topic of the film alone has, in the past, evoked a too familiar response. Last fall, Fordham Students for Life screened HUSH on campus and pro-choice protestors physically blocked the doors of the building so people who wanted to see the film were forced to turn away. The protestors then went to the screening, filled out response forms to the movie with negative feedback and left before actually seeing it.
“We see this as an opportunity on campuses for respectful and productive discourse for the sake of women’s health, not a screaming match over abortion,” said Hawkins. “We are hoping that these serious side effects to abortion will be given the attention that they demand by the mainstream media in a true service and honor to women.”
