Reversing Roe movie review: An indictment of the state and religion's encroachment upon the womb

Astounding as it may sound, not until the passing of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920 did women in the US receive the right to vote. It is worth mentioning here that the country had achieved independence from colonial rule in 1776. Basically, it took more than a hundred years for the legislators of a major nation to give one half of their people the right to make a political choice.

Reversing Roe, a recently released Netflix original documentary, takes for its subject the growing threat to American women’s right to make another fundamental choice: abortion. The documentary’s great achievement is the clarity with which it depicts the gradual, near villainous manner in which a personal matter was politicised, the womb turned into a political and religious battleground, and activists’ and ordinary women’s efforts to push back against a great injustice being perpetrated in the name of life.

The documentary takes its name from a landmark judicial verdict in the case of Roe vs Wade that made abortion a fundamental right in the US. The film itself is concerned with the gradual chipping away by a religious-politico combine at the freedom provided by this verdict to women to exercise control over their own bodies. In doing so, directors Ricki Stern and Anne Sundberg provide considerable representation to the pro-life advocates — an umbrella term for those opposing abortion — to give a well-rounded account of the debate.

Reversing Roe interviews an eclectic cast of people on both sides, from organisers of anti-abortion movements to priests supporting women’s rights to abortion unconditionally. But the real heroes of this documentary are the women, both ordinary and those in power — the Ruth Bader Ginsburgs and Wendy Davis-es — who try to push back against social regression day in an day out for a right that shouldn’t be up for debate in the first place. You’d have goosebumps witnessing Davis’ 13-hour-long filibuster speech — during which she isn’t allowed to sip water or lean against a table — that sought to prevent Texas from passing a bill that mandated closing down abortion clinics across the state. Not that it stopped them from doing it again anyway. But Davis, a model of composure and common sense, and a few good men and women like her, continue to fight for millions of women across America. Especially now with a joker wielding power in the White House and stamping his feet like a schoolboy over justice and common sense.

Some of the statistics presented by the documentary are truly infuriating. Consider the fact that there are multiple states across the US with just one abortion clinic. Not to forget the harassment that women who choose to go there and the doctors working in there face on a regular basis. The documentary charts the slow but frustratingly steady encroachment of the state and religion upon the womb in a bid to exploit it for political purposes. The more the encroachment, the more there is a rise in such distressing statistics. Multiple presidents, from Reagan to Bush Sr, find themselves turning pro-life and anti abortion in order to satisfy the whims of their considerable evangelical supporters. It leads to a concomitant rise in the pro-life group’s political heft and the number of assaults they make on the Roe verdict’s legitimacy. “It’s the basis of democracy that you control your own bodies,” says Gloria Steinem, renowned feminist. “And it’s the basis of totalitarian regimes that you don’t.”

This pretty much sums up the slow slide towards routine injustice that women seeking abortions face in an America where the spectre of totalitarianism hasn’t seemed as dangerous as it is today.

At the end of the day, though, the untold story is of that one woman who may soon have to fly from one state to another just to get an abortion. The pro-life groups’ efforts have tried to make the process as expensive and prohibitive as possible. Then there’s the shaming and the emotional assaults made at her conscience. Slowly and steadily, a wall is built separating the woman — who, in case she is poor, may as well give up already — from the right to exercise a choice. A simple matter between a patient and her physician is turned into national news and a matter for public debate; in simpler terms, exploitation and repression on an unprecedented scale.

Mind you, this battle is currently taking place in “the land of the free and the fountain of liberty”, a nation our country looks up to with starstruck eyes. Aptly, we are not to be left far behind. In India, there have been high profile cases denying even minors who’d been raped the right to abort a child in advanced stages. Legally, the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971, permits abortions up to 12 weeks but only after consultation with a doctor. The number of doctors jumps to two in case of 12-20 weeks. This is particularly distressing in a country where child marriage remains rampant and female foeticide is common. It is hoped that corrective measures are made in the right direction at the earliest.

I credit Reversing Roe for choosing to lend a voice to the pro-life community, even though the shibboleth of their arguments doesn’t deserve it at all. The directors use it as an essential tool for pacing the narrative in a wholesome manner, which, for a feature length documentary that sets out to provide a brief history of a deep injustice, makes a great challenge but complete sense. Notably, but not surprisingly, the choice of words employed by leaders of some pro-life movements should not be ignored. The tone is belligerent, vicious, as if driven by untrammelled military ambition; a vocabulary derived from war seeped in contempt and anger. Ironic for a group that claims to uphold life. Ironic, but not surprising, given their support for the man in the House right now.

I have deliberately chosen not to rate Reversing Roe, because it must be watched by everyone, their nationality, age or religious affiliation notwithstanding. For centuries, the state has waged a war to control the human body. With the proliferation of technology, there has been a steady increase in the tools available for it to pursue this purpose. It is now up to us to use the same technology, combined with the age old tools of knowledge and self awareness, to fight back and chant like the women in Reversing Roe: “We won’t go back!”

Reversing Roe is now streaming on Netflix. Watch the trailer here: