Graphic footage of an abortion will be shown on TV. Is it sensationalism or an attempt to encourage debate, asks Rosita Boland
On Tuesday, the boundaries of television will be pushed out again, this time by Channel 4. In recent years, via reality television programmes and graphic documentaries, audiences have viewed people having sex, giving birth, being operated on, being dissected, and even dying. On Tuesday, Channel 4 will be screening footage of an abortion for the first time on British television, in Julia Black's controversial 30-minute documentary, My Foetus.
Black's documentary shows a five-minute abortion of a four-week foetus, and images of foetuses terminated at 10, 11 and 12 weeks. It also features interviews with doctors who perform abortions and people on both sides of the abortion debate. Black, who had an abortion at 21, was pregnant when she made the film. Her father, Tim Black, is the chief executive of Marie Stopes International in London. The family contact presumably assisted Black with the sensitive challenge of filming in an abortion clinic. Unsurprisingly, publicity about the documentary is already stirring heated debate in both Britain and Ireland.
Channel 4 spokeswoman Mags Patten says, "We don't have a specific target audience in mind. But the facts speak for themselves. One in three women in Britain will have an abortion in their lifetime, so that makes plenty of people with an interest in the subject. One of the purposes of the film was to promote debate about abortion, so we're not hugely surprised by the public interest in the documentary."
The Catholic Primate of England and Wales, Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor, has publicly endorsed the documentary, saying it would have "a devastating effect" on viewers and would bring home the message that abortion involves "the deliberate destruction of human life".
The latest statistics of Irish women travelling for abortions are for 2002, when 6,490 women went to Britain. However, this figure does not include those women travelling to other EU countries for a termination, where the operation is cheaper.
John Smyth is the spokesperson for the Pro Life Association in Ireland. "Given that abortion has been legal in Britain for decades," he says, "the initial reaction from us is that it's remarkable it has taken so long to document the reality of what takes place in the procedure. But we don't really believe that indiscriminate use of images is of help to us - it can cause audiences to switch off, rather than engage in debate. People find it distressing.
"But we do think television is a very important forum. Abortion hasn't been shown in this graphic way before on television and it does put a focus on the part of the debate that was missing. We need from time to time to confront reality at that level. The abortion debate in Ireland is not as divisive as it was in the past. I think the debate has become more calm and measured in the Irish context, but given the subject, it's always going to be a debate labelled 'divisive'."
Deirdre Jones, manager of Reproductive Choices (formerly known as Marie Stopes) in Dublin, says, "I am surprised this documentary has been made. But half an hour is never enough to cover an issue like this. I can't imagine anything they show on television will be any worse than the protesters with their placards outside the GPO. I hope the programme will put forward both sides of what is a very strong subject. I imagine there will be a lot of discussion afterwards."
Like John Smyth, Jones feels that the abortion debate is somewhat more measured in Ireland now. "Attitudes have changed, even in the last seven years. If we had a protest outside the clinic, we'd have to close for the day because women wouldn't pass it, but they will now. There is less fear."
Charlotte Carey, a spokeswoman for Cura (which aims to provide care for pregnant women) says: "We keep out of debates. We wouldn't be commenting on something like the documentary because the people who come to us for advice might be judging us on what they read about us. So we have a policy of not commenting."
Brendan Young of the pro-choice organisation, Alliance for Choice, says of the documentary: "I guess Channel 4 is going for a more sensational approach. If that is their purpose, then they are pushing out the boundaries of reality TV. Until we see it, it's hard to say. It's likely to be unsettling to watch, and we would be concerned the documentary will be used to kick off an inflammatory debate, and that the anti-choice movement will use it. We hope the programme won't be exploitative of either side.
"People have moved on in Ireland re the abortion debate. People have a much more nuanced view on whether abortion is appropriate or not."
One 38-year-old Dublin woman, who doesn't want to be named, had an abortion eight years ago. She will not be watching the documentary. "I can't imagine who will be, apart from voyeurs, the media, and those directly involved with the abortion debate," she says. "I have never regretted or been haunted by the choice I made, although it goes without saying that it is a choice that no sane woman ever wants to face, ever finds easy, or ever makes lightly.
"But since that time, I have always felt a shadowy member of Irish society. I get enraged at election time when certain politicians pontificate about the importance of keeping Ireland free from the evils of abortion. Do they ever for one minute consider the sizeable, silent constituency of women who have been through the experience, and whom they so consistently offend and alienate? They should, because we have votes too.
"For me, abortion was a very private issue. I've since witnessed the weird contradiction of that private issue being endlessly discussed publicly, but almost never by the women who have been through it, because to admit in public in Ireland to having had an abortion is almost impossible - even in 2004. My private decision is thus constantly being appropriated by others for their own moral or political agendas, and it will happen again after the documentary is screened."
My Foetus, C4, Tuesday, 11.05 p.m.
