A documentary about late-term abortions in Russia, 7 years in the making, has just been released. [JLS note: I have been watching for this film for a year.]
Killing Girls has already been nominated for best documentary film in 3 European film festivals and through the wonders of technology is available to download online for $14.99, which I did last weekend. (DVD is also available for $22.99.) Here's the trailer...
The primary setting of Killing Girls is the Center for Family Planning and Reproduction in St Petersburg, a large, old hospital where babies are delivered on one floor and aborted on the next. Mothers recover together.
Late-term abortions are common in Russia. In a country where the film tells us 80% of women abort an average of two to 10 times, older girls tell younger girls to wait until after 20 weeks to abort because, they say, it is better for the female body to have an induced abortion than surgical abortion. The girls worry about becoming sterile. Very messed up. This despite the fact abortions are free up to 12 weeks.
Killing Girls tracks the labor-induction abortions of several teens. The name of the movie is a play on words, because as Irish director David Kinsella wrote me, "All the girls I filmed gave birth to girls." By "gave birth" Kinsella meant aborting by labor induction, except one who changed her mind and went on to deliver a full-term girl....
Because these were labor-induction abortions, I asked Kinsella if any babies survived....
