Directed by Amalie R. Rothschild • Documentary • 1971 • 32 minutes
Made in 1971 when a medically safe legal abortion was available in only one state, "It Happens to Us" was produced to bring to public attention the sometimes shattering, and always difficult, personal situations underlying a woman’s decision to end a pregnancy. As long as the availability of legal abortion remains limited or threatened outright, it is important that contemporary audiences know the consequences of abortion being illegal, and what life was like before Roe vs Wade, and what it is becoming again in many states after the Dobbs decision in 2022. The film presents the most cogent arguments through the personal stories of a wide range of women both rich and poor, young and older, black and white, married and unmarried, as to why women should be allowed to control their own bodies.
Up Next in The Right to Choose
-
Leona's Sister Gerri
Directed by Jane Gillooly • Documentary • With Leona Gordon, Gerri Santoro, Joyce Carboni • 1995 • 57 minutes
For Geraldine Santoro and so many women like her, the barriers to obtaining a safe, legal abortion were insurmountable and in 1964 the legal and the social system did not protect her. Th...
-
Band of Sisters
Directed by Joel Fendelman • Documentary • 2004 • 7 minutes
On April 25th, 2004, 1.15 million women marched to the nation’s capital in Washington D.C. to protect and advance abortion rights. Band of Sisters is a retro feeling snapshot of the march filmed in multiple 16mm film stocks using a 1960...
-
From Danger to Dignity
Directed by Dorothy Fadiman • Documentary • 56 minutes
Even though most abortions were illegal in the United States before 1973, they were still available. The outcome, however, often depended on a woman's financial situation. Many women who sought abortions risked their lives by going to practi...
