The Roots of Roe

"The Roots of Roe" is a documentary promoting abortion and contraception and using American history to support this. It consists of many interviews, old photos and pictures and famous actors narrating or reading the experiences of mostly long-dead folks.

The premise of this film is that abortion in America was only really looked down on in the mid-19th century...and the views of anti-abortion advocates today are regressive and not those of the earlier Americans.

The problem with this film is that no matter how hard the filmmakers want to convince you of their position, it probably won't change any attitudes as it's a very contentious topic. Additionally, it's a case of a film 'preaching to the choir'. In other words, it mostly is a film meant to affirm the beliefs of many viewers who see no problem with abortion. This is NOT criticism...just what comes with any film about abortion in America today.

Is it well made? Yes. But it also occasionally works harder to convince you of the rightness of abortion than trying to provide a balanced look. Now again, this isn't necessarily a criticism...but they do ignore some information which might hurt their argument (such as Margaret Sanger being more a proponent of abortion for non-whites and ethnic types).