A Review of A Matter of Life by Nick Olszyk
Distribution Service: Fathom Events, May 16th and
17th in Theaters
MPAA Rating, Not rated at the time of this review
USCCB Rating, Not rated at the time of this review
Reel Rating, Four Reels
Only nine months from now, the United States will
mark the 50th year since Roe v. Wade effectively made
abortion legal in the United States. It is an event that will not go smoothly
and has the potential to make the January 6th riot look like a mild
Canadian disagreement. A Matter of Life is a fantastic new documentary on
pro-life philosophy and tactics that has the potential to sway hearts and minds
away from a catastrophic future and towards “a more perfect union.” That could
happen, but I’m skeptical.
The
documentary, like any good lesson, begins by framing the question: what is the
unborn? Ninety-five percent of all life issues could be resolved if this could
be defined. Using biology, physiology, and logic, the first twenty minutes
effectively demonstrates that the unborn are not only human but contain the same
ontological qualities of humans in any stage of life. Thus, if any human person
has rights, so do the unborn. Our knowledge in the past was somewhat limited by
technology, but when doctors can now perform heart surgery on a twenty-week-old
fetus, there really is no way out.
The
film really hits its stride when it discusses the most effective “threats” against
the abortion industry. The first is women. By now, it is a well-established fact
that the early suffragettes like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Seaton saw
abortion as a violation of women’s basic dignity. What I didn’t know was that NARAL,
the largest abortion lobby, was founded by two men, one of whom was an
outspoken advocate of population control. Indeed, the first major publican to
endorse legal abortion was not The New York Times but Playboy
Magazine. When the National Organization of Woman (NOW) announced shortly
after Roe that it supported the decision, a third of its board resigned
in protest. They continue to fight for all women through organizations that provide
a myriad of prenatal and postnatal care that Planned Parenthood laughably
neglects.
The
second threat that has become extraordinarily potent in the last ten years are
former abortion workers. This movement started with former PP director Abby
Johnson’s excellent memoir Unplanned and now includes hundreds. A
Matter of Life focuses on Dr. Anthony Levatino, a surgeon who preformed abortions
for twenty years. He describes the various procedures with clinical precision,
accompanied by animations that are direct but not unnecessarily graphic. In
late term operations, where he had to count the body parts, he would briefly
look away so he wouldn’t have to see the “face.” After years of infertility,
when his family was finally able have a child, he was forced to “face” the
reality and left the practice forever.
There
are many other wonderful moments and quotes. My personal favorite revelation
involved the economics of the pro-choice industry. Abortion is always
profitable – for the doctor, the nurses, the insurance companies, and the
government. Pro-life work always costs something – diapers, medical care, formula,
therapy. Which is more compassionate? Despite the film’s fine work, I was nonetheless
left troubled.
Who
is this documentary for? These reasons, while brilliantly illustrated, have been
around for generations. There is no longer a lack of scientific knowledge, moral
reasoning, or legal pondering. The current pro-choice argument seems to be “shut
up and let us do what we want.” There’s no response to that. When I started
writing this review, the end of Roe seemed a long way off. As I write
these final lines, a draft of a Supreme Court decision that would overturn Roe
has been leaked – the first in modern history. Based
on the response, I’ll be praying for all the justices’ safety and avoiding metropolitan
areas.
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