Care Net: HBO's '12th and Delaware' Shoots for Viewers, Not Accuracy
by Staff
August 5, 2010
MEDIA ADVISORY, (christiansunite.com) -- Care Net, a national network of 1,100 pregnancy centers, issued the following statement in response to HBO's "12th and Delaware," a documentary that portrays the issue of abortion through the eyes of two filmmakers who dramatize the work of a pregnancy center and an abortion clinic in Ft. Pierce, Florida:"While Oscar-nominated filmmakers Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing may have set out to accurately depict the work of these two 'sides' of the abortion issue, they clearly did not do the necessary background work of a good documentarian or journalist. Neither Care Net nor any other national pregnancy center organization was contacted, to our knowledge, by these filmmakers for any information. Without more research or interviews with other centers across the nation, how could these filmmakers faithfully portray this movement of approximately 2,300 centers?
"There is much in the film that is disturbing, as is the issue of abortion. It is difficult to know where the filmmakers used artistic license or key details were withheld. However, the overall perception that the filmmakers concoct of the pregnancy center and pro-lifers in general is in the style of many 1980's journalists, who ran sound bites of 'angry, white, male' pro-life protestors and lumped the entire pro-life movement in with them. That's inaccurate and it's propaganda.
"Nevertheless, those sidewalk counselors in the film that used hateful or fear-based rhetoric to dissuade women from choosing abortion are misguided and hurt the pro-life cause. The pro-life movement has compassion for both the woman and the child. That means that if a woman chooses abortion, she still needs our compassion and help.
"While the Ft. Pierce pregnancy center featured is not an affiliate of Care Net, they too, like Care Net centers, are being targeted by abortion advocates in an effort to smear their reputation and deter women from visiting them for help. Sadly, '12th and Delaware' fits in with that strategy. Groups like NARAL perpetuate the notion that pregnancy centers are scary places that use 'shock and awe' tactics to somehow trick women into carrying their pregnancy to term. That couldn't be further from the truth. Talk to any real client of a pregnancy center and you will hear something like this: "That was the first time, in a long time, that I felt like someone really cared about me."
For Care Net's complete response, visit www.care-net.org.
