New Documentary on Teenage Girls and Abortion

A new 54 minute documentary about a late term abortion department in Russia for teenage girls is in production for release in 2008. David Kinsella, an award winning photographer and filmmaker, is the director/photographer of "Killing Girls."

This film is being made as a TV movie and a full length Cinema version, which is one hour in length. In Russia, women have between 2 and 10 abortions each, despite the availability of contraceptives (I am not endorsing contraception here.). Teenagers abort up to eight months gestation.

I took a look at the trailer for the Killing Girls film on Youtube and it is shocking and at the same time, deeply moving. Warning: It is an explicit film.

Here is a summary of "Killing Girls" via Norwegian Films:

St. Petersburg, Russia. An abortion clinic that specializes in late term teenage abortions. Young girls arrive at the clinic through the back door, sometimes with their mother or a friend. But all of them have to go through it alone. Here, abortions are performed even after 7 months of pregnancy. The procedure is standard. When the girls arrive at the weekend, they are put in one big ward. All at the same time, eight girls are given drinks in order to encourage their contractions to start on Monday morning. When the contractions start the doctors and nurses will help the girls to deliver. Most girls do not want to see their babies. They stay for the night and in the early morning they leave the clinic again to get back to their lives.

"Killing Girls" is a story about moral and economic choices in today’s Russian society. It is the story of three girls that at one point in their life decided to end a pregnancy at a late term. It is the story of the doctor who performs these late term abortions. Who are these people? What is their story?

In the film we follow these characters closely for three years. Through them we learn about the living conditions for the younger generation in Russia, those that dream of a glamorous western lifestyle, but are condemned to live hunting for money to buy a moment of happiness. Nobody has time to have children any longer. Fighting to find an income in a society with badly paid work, children have become a problem.

I am in the process of learning more about this film and will keep you updated. More to come...

Cross-posted at Catholic Fire.