The Voice of John

Pros: I agree with the reviewer who said that the the individuals telling their stories are well-presented. I found all of their stories interesting & many were heartbreaking.

Cons: With so much information in almost 2 hours, it would have been very beneficial if there were sources provided either as information was being presented or at the end so we viewers can research on their own. I'm not sure who was behind the making of this, but they were clearly religious & several of the individuals seemed to imply that atheism, secularism, etc excuses/justifies abortion, which obviously is not true. People tend to default to their religious reasons, but a strong pro-life case can be made without it. For a while I didn't mind this religious narrative, but then it became a bit annoying as it continued.

Summary: I've seen other documentaries that strengthened my pro-life stance, but this is not one of them. Few, if anyone will be swayed. The devoutly religious, who already tend to be pro-life, will fawn over this. It seems to have been made for them. Those who are not religious (at least not devoutly) & feel conflicted over abortion, will probably not like being hit over the head with so many religious points and people suggesting that secularism and abortion go hand in hand.

First the good: For the most part, photography is appropriate for the material and does a good job of creating an appropriate mood. Individuals telling their story are well-presented and interestingly lit.

The bad, and the ugly This film plays fast and loose with the facts without offering citations. Several claims in this film are not proved or are used with the narrowest justification. Claims require proof. I find this odd for a film that claims to be a documentary, especially for an issue as important as this one.

This sloppiness will provide fodder for those on the other side of this issue to cry foul about the use of scare tactics on behalf of the pro-life movement in particular and Christians in general.

Just a few of the claims stated as fact, that are uncited, unjustified or just flat wrong: - Since passage of Rowe V. Wade, one third of all pregnancies have been terminated by abortions. - Due to abortion, the size of the average family has become so small that the social security system is facing insolvency. - Sex education in the schools involves advocacy and description of masturbation and distribution of birth control. - Teaching evolutionary science to your kids will cause them to advocate ethnic cleansing and possibly cause them to get abortions or become abortionists themselves.

A couple of minor points: The film is listed in IMDb at 89 minutes. The version I saw was more then 100 minutes. Due to all the uncited statements I expected to see a lengthy bibliography or at least notes at the end, but due to time constraints, the person showing the film cut it off as the credits were rolling. Most of these claims were so serious (like the 1/3 of pregnancies ending in abortions)that I would expect an in line citation. (And so should you.) The sound for a portion of the film was poor with the swelling background music overriding the voice of the person speaking.

I love documentaries and thought every one was true until now. I did not like how they lied to sway your opinion. You can

easily look up some of the facts and see how they were twisted. Really having that many more children in the world is going to make our economy richer ? Certainly not the children I see brought into this world living off our government. I don't believe the government should have the right to say what I should do to my body either. To say everything Planned Parenthood does is just about abortions is incorrect. Many women died because there were no safe places to have abortions. The women are always looked down on and the men can go on like nothing happened. I'm totally for women's rights !

Everyone needs to watch this but especially if you're are sending your kids to public schools! You don't have to believe in God or the ten commandments to know that abortion is murder. It was an eye-opener. It's unfortunate that so few people have seen this.

Never, ever trust a "documentary" that has no citations or facts. This piece reminded me of the "scary" stories we used to tell around the campfire at the fundamentalist bible camp i had to go to. Like, big fish stories, where the fish gets bigger every time you tell it. 1 star, do not recommend.