Thoughts on the "The Whole Story"
My morning-after thoughts on the "After Roe" documentary
If you were unable to watch CNN live on Sunday night, there are multiple options to watch the documentary still. If you have cable or satellite with video on-demand, search for “The Whole Story” to find last night’s episode. Online services such as Apple TV+, Hulu Live, and YouTube TV also have the episode available. If you don’t have any of these, you can get a free trial of YouTube TV.
CNN aired “Without Roe: The New Abortion Landscape” documentary last night on The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper. I’ve watched it twice to collect my thoughts on it. Initially, I had a pretty negative reaction that the producers had decided to include segments about Christians trying to force their religious beliefs on other people through government control. In our media engagements, we try to learn from the reporters whether they intend to tell the stories of people who have lost bodily autonomy in their community or if they intend to tell a story of “both sides.”
Without any voiceover, it took me until the end to pick up what I think was intended to be a subtle message. Watching the clips of the anti-abortion people, not once did they talk about the impact of their work on individuals or what they intended to do to help people who would be prevented from having an abortion. In essence, everything the opponents did dehumanized people who might need to get an abortion. Their position is based purely on their religion and wanting other people to be forced to adhere to the tenets of their religion.
In contrast, the stories told by the patients, their families, the providers, and the practical support people showed the humanity of this persecution by Christians. Who cannot empathize with a 14-year old girl who has dreams about her future career with extreme odds against her if she had a baby? Who cannot share Andrea’s hurt of leaving her young children with their father for days to help people get life-saving care? How could someone watch Alison and her husband lovingly care for their goats and not wish she could live without fear of arrest?
Making these connections to humanity contrasted to the dehumanizing abortion foes is an important message. We’ll continue this work as long as we can find avenues to carry it out because it’s the human thing to do.
Mike is the founder and Executive Director of Elevated Access, an organization of volunteer pilots providing free air transportation for people needing travel assistance to access abortion and gender-affirming care. Learn more at elevatedaccess.org.