Abortion Film Changes Minds

11-25-2015
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While the race to the White House is already well on its way, the United States isn't the only country with a major general election in 2016.

Voters in Ireland expect to head to the polls in the spring. And although there's an ocean between us, their list of concerns isn't too far off from our own: the economy, real unemployment, and immigration.

The same can be said for social issues, like abortion. In the run up to the election, the Labour Party has pledged to repeal Ireland's 8th Amendment, which bans abortion.

Enter LA-based Irish filmmakers Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney.

The husband-wife duo are producing an upcoming film about convicted abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, who for decades ran what Pennsylvania officials called a "house of horrors" known for fatal botched abortions and deplorable sanitary conditions.

In the midst of the repeal effort, McElhinney and McAleer recently co-authored an opinion piece in the Irish Times documenting the effect the Gosnell case has had on others:

"Almost anyone who has learned more about the reality of abortion ... has come away with only negative feelings about the procedure," they wrote in the Times.

It's a sentiment they expressed to CBN News during an interview at their home in Southern California in May 2014.

"I think it will change the discourse [on abortion]," McAleer said. "People who have heard all the evidence have been changed by it. Two jurors who self-described 'pro-choice' are no longer pro-choice as a result of what they heard. The same is true for one of the journalists who covered the case."

Watch the original CBN News story here.

At the time of the interview with CBN News, the duo was in the middle of a crowdfunding campaign, declaring their effort to fund the movie was a "stand for truth."

McElhinney insists pro-choice factions take issue with the Gosnell case, in particular, because it will "affect people who used to think people should have complete, liberal access to these services."

"No matter who they are, I think that they have to reassess that after hearing this story," McElhinney told CBN News.

The pair acknowledge they themselves had always been "fairly disinterested" in abortion until they became familiar with the Gosnell case.

They now believe making the film crystallized the importance of open dialogue to have an honest debate about abortion ... a debate they're willing to engage here in the States as well as their native Ireland.

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