Go see Vera Drake and then tell me to be tolerant of Anti-Choice People

[PlanetBev]

It is a great movie, and very harrowing, clearly showing the situation women were in if they found themselves "in trouble".
I can be tolerant of others who are against abortion, but there is no compromising with these people: they want to outlaw abortion. They want to drive us back into the days of clandestine, kitchen table abortions. They know perfectly well that women will continue to get unsafe abortions, but their attitude is, "go ahead and get one and I hope it kills you." I'm old enough to remember when it was illegal, and I can guarantee you, it wasn't pretty.

The Democratic leadership seems ready to knuckle under to other side on this issue. Haven't they learned anything? Jimmy Carter tried to appease them by removing access to federally funded abortion. The Right-to-Lifers smelled blood in the water and it made them even more agressive.

[Hobarticus]

1. Hoping to see it, but doubt I can...

My town is VERY Catholic; doubt it'll have a chance to show here.

Thank God for Netflix!

[sinkingfeeling]

2. The great RW also wants to eliminate birth control and move

women back into second-class citizens. Well, I for one AIN'T GOIN'!!

[KarenS]

3. I don't want to see this movie,,,,

I will, but I am soooooo not ready yet.

Yep, it will be a NetFlix selection one of these days.


BTW I too am old enough to remember before Roe V Wade and before birth control.

[BlueEyedSon]

4. Well, I for one am totally stoked.

I have some medical background, and I'm kinda clever. Know a little marketing too.

This is a perfect opportunity to make & sell the home abortion kit. No, seriously, a GOOD one.

Let's face it, being a doctor is a TRADE. Anyone can do most of what they do. For a given procedure, you need an hour of training and a few special tools.

What a great opportunity!

[PlanetBev]

7. Actually, they were talking about a home-kit after Reagan was elected

Someone showed it on one of those morning talk shows. It involved a glass bottle and some kind of suction force. We were all really freaked out then because we were sure that abortion was going to be outlawed then. As it turned out, O'Conner, Souter and Kennedy saved us from Roe v. Wade being overturned then. Also, Reagan was not a religious nut like Bush.

I don't think we'll be as lucky this time. I guarantee this, if Roe v. Wade is overturned, we'll end up with bootleg RU-486, a zillion people passing along info on the Net, and weekend trips to Canada. The Fetus zealots are in for a hollow victory.

[LittleClarkie]

5. Can you be pro-life without being anti-choice?

Or is there a distinction being made, as in anti-choice being a particularly extreme wingnut of pro-life. Or are folks who talk about anti-choice people putting all pro-lifers in the same boat.

Just trying to get our definitions straight, so that we'll all be on the same page, so to speak.

Can a woman be inclined not to have an abortion herself (in my eyes making her pro-life for her own person) and still be pro-choice?

[DireStrike]

6. No distinction

We just have to stop using their nonsense doublespeak.

[PlanetBev]

8. The film will get a lot of attention at Oscar time

There is no doubt in my mind that the woman who plays Vera Drake will get the Academy Award for best performance. Her acting was amazing. That should launch it into wider release. Everybody needs to see this movie.

[CBHagman]

10. That's actress Imelda Staunton.

Who, by the way, was brought up Roman Catholic, if I recall correctly. An interesting footnote to an interesting film.

From what I know, Mike Leigh, the director, likes to have his casts improvise much of their dialogue. A good deal of the film's suspense had to do with how the various characters reacted to the situations at hand.

And Leigh tends to show people with warts and all, and hesitates to condemn, demonize or canonize any figures. There's a lot of room for grey areas. I highly recommend, for example, that the people on this thread who haven't done so already see Leigh's films "Secrets and Lies" and Topsy-Turvy," in addition to the already mentioned "Vera Drake."

The closest things to monsters in "Vera Drake" are not the figures you might expect. Go with as open a mind as you can manage.

[SlackJawedYokel]

9. Not really.

Given that the avowed agenda for the Pro-Life movement is to make abortion illegal.
And I'm not sure what being pro-life(lower case) means.
The Hindu revere all life, so I'm guessing this is the closest to being truly pro-life as one can get... but that doesn't include plant life, does it?
After that, who can know?

I know that people have tried to make Pro-Choice mean "pro any choice" or "pro every choice" in a fallacious attempt to undermine the position.

I know that people who would never want/get an abortion feel the need to lable themselves, somehow and typically call themselves pro-life or even anti-abortion(which I find more accurate).

Or is there a distinction being made, as in anti-choice being a particularly extreme wingnut of pro-life. Or are folks who talk about anti-choice people putting all pro-lifers in the same boat.
Just trying to get our definitions straight, so that we'll all be on the same page, so to speak.
Understandable given the amount of emotion involved in this discussion.
Quite frankly, regardless of what you call them, there are those who want to make abortion illegal and those who want to keep it safe and legal.
Call them what you will. :D

Can a woman be inclined not to have an abortion herself (in my eyes making her pro-life for her own person) and still be pro-choice?
Absolutely.
In fact, many Pro-Choicers would *never* choose abortion for themselves.

Being male, the point is moot for me, but from where I stand what is at issue are individual rights and in my opinion those rights should not be infringed.

Cletus

[Jackie97]

12. Words.

"I know that people have tried to make Pro-Choice mean "pro any choice" or "pro every choice" in a fallacious attempt to undermine the position."

I understand what you're saying. An anti-choicer might claim to be pro-choice when they really want to outlaw abortion. They'll claim to be pro-choice based on the grounds that they're not against all decisions that women make regarding their reproductive health.

However, I'm finding that some of the people who are acting this way are also getting to be on the pro-choice side.

We've got a problem here. The anti-choice movement has decided to make their movement more than just about outlawing abortion. This stuff might have started off *solely* about abortion, but it's not about that anymore. They want to make it abstinence only education (which has been deceptive), euthanasia, cloning, birth control not being covered by insurance companies, and some other issues. Okay, cloning isn't a big issue. The others are really hot issues though. If a person says that they're pro-choice in general, but are against something like what I call real sex education, then I'll still openly call them pro-choice. However, they're going to be anti-choice in my mind. That's just how my mind works. I think that's how a lot of pro-choicer's minds work lately.

The anti-choice movement used to be all about outlawing abortion. Now, it's not. It's just not soley about abortion anymore. That crazy anti-choice movement is working toward controlling *all* of our reproductive decisions through our birth control and even a kid's need to know how to protect her/himself. The fact that they're actually trying to control a kid's mind so they can get people to breed is scary to me.

I realize that pro-choice and anti-choice is about abortion simply because this is how it started off over thirty years ago. However, I personally think of it as the struggle for reproductive rights all together; not just abortion. How can somebody be pro-choice when they defend an insurance company's "right" to decide not to cover birth control pills? That's just how my mind works. I think a lot of other people might be thinking that way as well. Although I admit that I don't go around asking people what they think, I do know a lot of people well enough to know that they would not consider certain people who are for these other attacks on reproductive rights to be pro-choice.

[Jackie97]

11. Yes, but it's not "pro-life" to be anti-abortion.

"Or is there a distinction being made, as in anti-choice being a particularly extreme wingnut of pro-life. Or are folks who talk about anti-choice people putting all pro-lifers in the same boat."

Anti-choice specifically means wanting to outlaw abortion. It means nothing else. Some people use the terms anti-abortion and "pro-life" to decribe anybody who thinks abortion is wrong, but some don't.

"Can a woman be inclined not to have an abortion herself (in my eyes making her pro-life for her own person) and still be pro-choice?"

Yeah.

Can we not call it "pro-life" though? That's like calling us pro-death.

[bleedingheart]

13. That was the method of abortion my great aunt used to end pregnancies

in fact my grandmother assisted her with the abortion they performed on my one cousin...after she got pregnant to a much older married man...

That was a great movie...a good hardworking woman who was trying to help women in need.

[CBHagman]

14. I was sorry Imelda Staunton didn't win the Golden Globe.

Granted, there's no guarantee with these things, but I was secretly hoping someone who wasn't American or Hollywood mainstream would take home the Best Actress in a Drama award.

Then again, she did pick up some other awards. Good for her.

[CBHagman]

15. "Vera Drake" a winner at the BAFTA

"Vera Drake" was honored at the British equivalent of the Academy Awards. Imelda Staunton, in the title role, collected the best actress award.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1412002,00.html

For those of you who haven't seen the film, be sure to watch to see who Mike Leigh has dedicated the film to. I'm sure you'll be moved.

[Broca]

16. Is this a recent movie

or has it been out long enough where I might find it at video store?

[CBHagman]

17. Still in theaters, Broca.

The problem is that it's a "small," intimate movie and won't play the multiplex, for the most part, which will be showing thrillers and romantic comedies. You will probably have to seek out a theater that features independent and foreign films. For some people, this means a trip to a large city.

I'm in the Washington, D.C., area, and it's only playing a few places, such as at the American Film Institute Silver Theatre in Silver Spring, MD. I think you can look up showtimes if you go to the Internet Movie Database.

www.imdb.com

www.veradrake.com