By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
A new movie based on the true story of a woman who watched her son die after givingn birth to him in the bathroom of an abortion clinic is being released to an increasing number of audiences including the U.S. Congress.
According to World Net Daily (WND), which broke the original story, the film is called “22 Weeks” and was made by a young Puerto Rican filmmaker named Angel Manual Soto Vazquez.
It is based on the story of a woman identified only as Angele who decided to end her 22-week pregnancy at the EPOC Clinic of Orlando Women’s Center in Orlando Florida. After the abortion, Angele went into the rest room and delivered the baby alive. Her cries for help went unheeded by the medical staff, even after an employee saw that the tiny baby boy was still moving.
Angele then ran to a phone outside the clinic to call a friend for help. She returned to the clinic bathroom where she curled up with her tiny son, whom she named Rowan. She bathed him, cut the umbilical chord, then held him until he died 11 minutes later. After the medical staff demanded that she turn over the baby’s body, she blocked the door to keep them away and remained in the bathroom until police arrived.
Soto Vázquez says the film isn’t pro-choice or pro-life but just relates a true story. Audiences can reach their own conclusions, he says.
“Even though the movie doesn’t take any side, the way I show it, I show both sides of the spectrum on the issue of abortion,” Soto Vázquez told WND. “I just let the spectator decide which side he’s going to take from the story, because it’s based on a true story.”
He said it’s a movie “about a woman who decides to get an abortion, and she gets an abortion. But it’s also the story of a woman who, after she gets the abortion, realizes what she has done when she has that mother-son connection.”
Pro-life activist and WND columnist Jill Stanek said she was stunned by the very professionally made 25-minute film.
“I know the mom,” Stanek said. “When I saw the movie, I always had empathy for her, but when I saw the mom holding her little baby in the bathroom dying, I had a new sense of understanding. I felt her despair. I was traumatized for her. It’s definitely effective.”
Soto Vázquez showed the film to U.S. Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) who “loved it” and is hoping to organize a full congressional screening on Jan. 22, the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision.
Thus far, the film has been shown to private audiences, screened in Puerto Rico, viewed on Capitol Hill and has had two public screenings in Virginia Beach, Va., and San Diego, Calif. Future screenings are planned for Kansas City, Dallas, and Los Angeles.
The film’s website, www.22weeksthemovie.com, has also added a feature in which people can enter a request to have the movie seen in their area.
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