The Abortion Divide felt like a very neutral documentary to me, so much so that I was sitting there watching it thinking which side is correct? (But it was just presented so well that I felt like if I already hadn’t chosen a side and was uneducated on the issue I feel like it would be conflicting) However, I already have my opinion and I do think that women should be entitled to what they want to do with their own bodies, at the end of the day it should be their choice. There was even a section that noted a lot of the protestors who were against abortion that would stand outside the clinic were white, old men, aka the complete opposite of the people who typically go in for abortions. I was very baffled to find out people stand there all day everyday protesting things that have nothing to do with them or their own bodies, worried about what other people who they don’t even know what they’re going through are doing. It felt somewhat relieving to see that the abortion clinic had escorts outside, because I can’t imagine how overwhelemed someone who needs to an abortion already would feel, and how much people protesting their right to do that outside and almost pressuring them into feeling like they’re making the wrong decision would shake them.

A bizarre thought I had while watching the documentary was, if religion didn’t exist what would be the opposing sides argument? It seems like to me it’s all rooted in religion, but then (assuming I’m going by the religious anti-abortion opinion just for a second) what about the people who are non-religious? They should be free to get an abortion without worry of people bombarding them with the fact that what they’re doing is ‘wrong,’ ‘evil,’ ‘inhumane,’ and every other negative connotative word in the book.

Something that I thought was great was with one of the patients in the film, she explained she wanted to have an abortion because she knew she couldn’t support the child, and that she wouldn’t be able to handle being a parent. That type of awareness is very powerful, because there are already so many children in the world who are suffering.