Friday, January 22, 2010

"Not Yet Rain" for Roe v. Wade

Today is the 37th anniversary of Roe v Wade, the landmark Supreme Court case that made abortion legal in the United States.

I was born at a time when I didn't have to think much about women losing their lives from trying to get rid of an unwanted pregnancy.  But when I was in Ethiopia, shooting "Not Yet Rain", it became clear to me just how important is for abortion to be legal if we are going to be saving women's lives.

Please watch my short film at www.NotYetRain.org.  The trailer is posted below:

2 comments:

Hua said...

Thanks for sharing the video, it's great!

Best,
Hua
Director of Blogger Relations
wellsphere.com

Lisa Russell said...

Dear Anonymous,

Thank you so much for the comment. I wish you had left your name and/or email as I'd like to discuss this with you further.

I would in no way misrepresent a story about such a sensitive issue as rape. The quote you heard is only one from a one hour conversation I had with Tigist (with the assistance of a translator and then re-confirmed in the edit.)

The new law in Ethiopia states there are several cases where a woman can terminate a pregnancy - being raped is one of them, but so is being a minor. The reality is, women face unwanted pregnancies from a variety of reasons - rape, forced marriage, etc. It is not a "Western narrative" that victimize women in developing countries. It is a reality in both the developed and developing worlds.

I'd gladly discuss this with you further if you want to contact me. My email is lisa@governessfilms.com.

Thanks!