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Word: nathanson (lookup in dictionary) (lookup stats)
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...film; unsurprisingly, many of the film's central claims are undermined. According to Planned Parenthood, the fetus does not experience pain at 12 weeks, it does not make purposeful movements to flee the abortionist's tools, and it cannot emit a "silent scream." Moreover, the organization claims that Nathanson quotes inaccurate statistics, misuses medical sources and even accelerates the ultrasound video to make the fetus look more traumatized than...

Author: By Geoffrey C. Upton, | Title: Listening to 'Silent Scream' | 5/5/1999 | See Source »

...centerpiece of the film is an ultrasound video of the abortion of a 12-week fetus. As the abortion proceeds, the narrator, former abortion doctor Bernard Nathanson, describes the way the fetus is destroyed by the various devices inserted into the uterus. At one point Nathanson claims that the fetus opens its mouth to emit a "silent scream" as it shrinks from the abortionist's tools...

Author: By Geoffrey C. Upton, | Title: Listening to `Silent Scream' | 5/5/1999 | See Source »

...truth, the ultrasound is so grainy--the film was made in 1984--that Nathanson's assertions about what is going on can hardly be visually verified. More powerful is the introduction, in which Nathanson shows the abortionist's tools and explains how they are used. Anyone would be sickened by his description of how the fetus's skull is crushed with a pair of forceps when it becomes too large to be suctioned out of the uterus...

Author: By Geoffrey C. Upton, | Title: Listening to `Silent Scream' | 5/5/1999 | See Source »

...whole, though, the film relies too heavily on shocking graphics to be convincing. The film ends with pictures of well-developed fetuses sitting in bloody buckets, followed by a moralistic speech by Nathanson about the obligation to stop abortions--and a strange claim that abortion clinics are run by organized crime. Still, Nathanson does make a smart move in urging not that all abortions be made illegal, but that women about to undergo the procedure view a film like "Silent Scream" that shows the process in detail. By the time I left the common room, I was ready to consider...

Author: By Geoffrey C. Upton, | Title: Listening to `Silent Scream' | 5/5/1999 | See Source »

...film; unsurprisingly, many of the film's central claims are undermined. According to Planned Parenthood, the fetus does not experience pain at 12 weeks, it does not make purposeful movements to flee the abortionist's tools, and it cannot emit a "silent scream." Moreover, the organization claims that Nathanson quotes inaccurate statistics, misuses medical sources and even accelerates the ultrasound video to make the fetus look more traumatized than...

Author: By Geoffrey C. Upton, | Title: Listening to `Silent Scream' | 5/5/1999 | See Source »

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