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Abortion: Desperate Choices

Name: Abortion: Desperate Choices
Director: Susan Froemke, Albert Maysles, Deborah Dickson
Released: 1992
Duration: 67 min

Representation Score

8.7/10

Excellent

1992

TV-MA

Director

Susan Froemke, Albert Maysles, Deborah Dickson

Runtime

67 minutes

Average Rating

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New Showbiz Analysis

This documentary moves beyond political binaries by focusing on the lived experiences of women over seven decades. It shifts the focus from abstract ideological battles to the concrete realities of individual ability to act and bodily autonomy. The film's greatest strength lies in its subversion of traditional gender hierarchies, presenting a multifaceted view of womanhood that resists simplistic, institutionalized definitions. However, the narrative remains anchored in a traditional biological framework, resulting in a lack of intentional inclusion regarding queer-specific narratives or disability-focused perspectives.

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Category Breakdown

Does Abortion: Desperate Choices have LGBTQ+ representation?

Fair

The film focuses on reproductive experiences and biological realities for those whose gender matches what they were assigned at birth. It doesn't include stories about non-cisgender identities or queer perspectives.

How does Abortion: Desperate Choices portray gender?

Excellent

The documentary highlights women as active decision-makers rather than passive subjects. It challenges idealized feminine archetypes by examining the psychological friction of reproductive choices.

How racially and ethnically diverse is Abortion: Desperate Choices?

Good

The film includes a wide range of racial and ethnic voices, adding important texture to the socio-political landscape.

How does Abortion: Desperate Choices represent religion and culture?

Excellent

The narrative critiques rigid religious and legal frameworks by framing conflicts as situations where individual autonomy clashes with systemic morality.

Does Abortion: Desperate Choices include disability representation?

Fair

Characters with visible or invisible disabilities are not central to the plot. The film does not address this category.

Present on Screen

Highlights women as active decision-makers in high-stakes situations.
Moves beyond political binaries through personal narratives.
Includes a broad range of racial and ethnic voices.
Critiques rigid institutional and religious moral frameworks.

Limited or Absent

Does not include stories about non-cisgender identities.
Does not prioritize characters with disabilities.
Does not focus on specific multi-layered identity politics.

Official Synopsis

An intensely personal exploration of an explosive issue -- abortion in America. Wrenching first-person narratives from seven decades of women, each one facing an unplanned pregnancy -- and the dreadful decision that no one wants to make. Both pro-life and pro-choice, both out front on the picket line and inside the clinic, these women's stories turn politics into heart-searing drama: a pregnant 17-year-old and her pro-life mother whose conflict unfolds in front of the camera; a 22-year-old who became a pro-life protester when she learned that her mother nearly aborted her; an unhappy mother-of-two who's expecting a third when her marriage suddenly hits the rocks; a 71-year-old grandmother who still grieves for her mother, an early victim of illegal abortion. In this fusion of past and present, the history of abortion is the history of women -- told at a time in America when yesterday's back-alley abortions may be the only choice left for tomorrow.

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