New documentary takes unflinching look at abortion in US — AFP

A limited-release documentary is showing the debate over abortion from both sides.

One scene depicts a doctor sifting through a surgical tray after performing a late-term abortion, where the grisly residue of an arm, a foot and part of a face can be clearly made out.

“It’s about as shocking as any motion picture can ever get. It’s illegal to film someone being killed,” said Kaye.

They may be the kind of images used by anti-abortion activists, but Kaye also doesn’t shy from showing pictures of a kneeling and bent-over naked woman who died after performing a botched abortion on herself with a wire coat hanger.

I do not have the stomach to watch a movie depicting a doctor sifting through the remains of a dead baby to make sure that all of the pieces have been removed from the woman, but maybe this documentary (if it is in fact one, and not one of the more aptly-name “docugandas,” such as An Inconvenient Truth) will be a good one for others to watch.

I have another reason for posting this link, too.

Even after spending years working on the project, Kaye, however, admits to not knowing where he stands in the debate.

“My position on the subject is that I don’t really know what’s right. I didn’t know much in the beginning… and at the end I was just as confused.”

This type of “confusion” raises a question outside of the point of the article: unless you’re absolutely sure, in your own mind, that a procedure that ends the existence of a life (or, if you prefer, a “would-be” life) is morally, legally, and ethically acceptable, should you really condone it? Is this not an issue that requires one to demand a level a certainty beyond “probably.” Is even being “probably” correct sufficient enough to explain away the horror should one be wrong?

In the absence of scientific “certainty,” there must be a default position that a person takes. I have wondered, on occasion, if my own stance on abortion (pro-life) is actually supported by the evidence. My inability to convince myself that abortion is simply a medical procedure that should be available, though, necessitated my acceptance that the correct default position was rejection.