Heroes or Killers? Can We Try to Discuss?
Oscilloscope Laboratories
Dr. Susan Robinson in her Albuquerque clinic. She and her colleague, Shelley Sella, contend with picketing and with the hovering, invisible threat of violence.
“After Tiller,” a new documentary by Martha Shane and Lana Wilson, is a partisan document in the culture wars. It could hardly be otherwise, since the film’s subject, abortion, is one where common ground is elusive, if not philosophically untenable. The four doctors interviewed and observed on screen, who the film says are the only ones in the United States openly performing third-trimester abortions, are heroic figures in the filmmakers’ eyes, but are condemned as murderers by those on the other side. It would be nice to believe that a movie like this could provoke civil and respectful dialogue about an intensely polarizing issue, but let’s not kid ourselves.
The four doctors — two in New Mexico, one in Colorado and one in Nebraska — honor the memory of their colleague, George Tiller, who was assassinated in 2009 in Wichita, Kan., where his clinic had been the scene of protests, threats and attacks. Since that killing, and especially since the 2010 elections, a number of states have passed more restrictive abortion laws, Nebraska being one of them. This forces Dr. LeRoy Carhart to find a new place to practice, and his attempts to do so inflame anti-abortion activists in Iowa and in Maryland, where he finally opens a clinic.
While the other doctors — Warren Hern in Boulder, and Susan Robinson and Shelley Sella, who share an office in Albuquerque — do not face that kind of disruption, they contend with continuous picketing and with the hovering, invisible threat of violence. But Ms. Shane and Ms. Wilson are less interested in recapitulating political debates than in understanding how the doctors approach work that would be emotionally difficult and ethically challenging even without the incessant controversy.
Some of the patients who come to them are in the late stages of planned pregnancies and have recently learned of catastrophic fetal anomalies. Others are teenagers who have, through fear, denial or ignorance, allowed their pregnancies to continue past the stage when simpler, more readily available abortions would be possible. In each case, the physicians and the counselors who work with them have to figure out an appropriate course of action. At one point Dr. Robinson and a colleague disagree about whether to help a young woman end her pregnancy even though she identifies herself as “pro-life,” and their exchange is one of the most illuminating discussions I have seen about the complicated reality of abortion.
Documentaries can rarely be judged as works of dispassionate, neutral reporting since few of them aspire to uphold those journalistic criteria. Rather, a documentary should be assessed as a representation of the world as it is, from a perspective that is itself part of that world. “After Tiller” is impressive because it honestly presents the views of supporters of legal abortion, and is thus a valuable contribution to a public argument that is unlikely to end anytime soon.
“After Tiller” is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). Discussion of abortion and some profanity.
After Tiller
Opens on Friday in Manhattan.
Produced and directed by Martha Shane and Lana Wilson; director of photography, Hillary Spera; edited by Greg O’Toole; music by Andy Cabic and Eric D. Johnson; released by Oscilloscope Laboratories. Running time: 1 hour 28 minutes.
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