Stand Up For Choice

An annoying piece of propaganda with all the depth of a nightly news report, this three-part program, aimed at motivating and educating pro-choice activists who are defending women's abortion rights, combines interview footage with activists (on both sides) and "clinic escorts" who try to safely shepherd women into abortion clinics during anti-choice demonstrations. Besides the interviews, we're shown endless scenes of confrontation between the pro- and anti- forces (which, of course, makes for good television). Although the focus is on a particular radical anti-choice group named Operation Rescue, the general idea that runs throughout the series is that the anti-choice people are basically a bunch of fundamentalist religious crazies. At one point, the narrator even says that "the debate over reproductive freedom is anything but philosophical," a remark that's sure to offend anyone with even a sliver of brain. Regardless of one's personal opinion over the abortion question, to suggest--in the smug, condescending tone found in Stand Up for Choice--that the most controversial issue dividing public opinion today is totally cut and dried is outrageous. Stand Up for Choice provides no insights, offers no suggestions for sides to meet on a common ground, reiterates dangerous stereotypes, and does it all in a style that would easily play on nightly tabloid TV. For those truly interested in the abortion issue (maybe even the filmmakers), we would recommend Ronald Dworkin's illuminating new book Life's Dominion, which treats a complex subject in an intelligent, even philosophical, fashion. Whereas, Stand Up for Choice does anything but. Not recommended. (R. Pitman)