Those who think the debate over abortion has gone away would do well to see Stephen Fell and Will Thompson’s feature-length documentary Unborn in the USA, now out on DVD. This began as a thesis project for the two while they attended film school; it’s a painstaking effort to get inside the anti-abortion (or “pro-life”) movement as they wage their holy war against the idea that women have a legal right to choose.

At first, we see classes that young crusading Christians take, with careful instruction given about how to fight a kinder, gentler battle against those who feel abortion is okay. We also get a sense of how far the anti-abortion movement has come; given the last few appointments to the Supreme Court, Bush has managed to stack the court in the direction of reversing Roe vs. Wade, the landmark ’73 decision that made prohibiting abortion unconstitutional.

What the anti-abortionists do is perfectly fair and valid, but hugely controversial: much of the film shows them unravelling gigantic photos of aborted foetuses to give people an idea of precisely what one looks like. When they do this on campuses, it sets off a series of outbursts by pro-choice students who are furious about such a display. Included are interviews with Army of God members who think shooting doctors who provide abortions is perfectly justifiable.

Unborn in the USA drags at points, but there is an unnerving climax that the filmmakers sensibly chose to close the film with, in which a yelling match escalates between pros and cons on the street. It’s a nasty moment, one that ends in violence. It’s a potent reflection of just how intense this debate remains.

Also out on DVD is Michael Moore’s Sicko, a film that notably managed to please many right-wing critics with its all-out assault on America’s faltering health care system. For any and all of its faults, Sicko is ultimately like any of the director’s other features: entertaining and well worth seeing.

by MATTHEW HAYS