The primary setting of "Killing Girls" is the Center for Family Planning and Reproduction in St Petersburg, a large, old hospital where babies are delivered on one floor and aborted on the next. Mothers recover together.
Late-term abortions are common in Russia. In a country where the film tells us 80 percent of women abort an average of two to 10 times, older girls tell younger girls to wait until after 20 weeks to abort because, they say, it is better for the female body to have an induced abortion than surgical abortion. The girls worry about becoming sterile. Very messed up. This despite the fact abortions are free up to 12 weeks.
"Killing Girls" tracks the labor-induction abortions of several teens. The name of the movie is a play on words, because as Irish director David Kinsella wrote me, "All the girls I filmed gave birth to girls." By "gave birth" Kinsella meant aborting by labor induction, except one who changed her mind and went on to deliver a full-term girl.
I've blogged about this documentary before. I'm so thrilled that it's available for download and through purchase of a DVD.
I wouldn't wish a prostaglandin abortion on my worst enemy.
UPDATE: March 12th 10:20 pm
The creator of the movie, David Kinsella, was very upset that I labelled his movie "Rated R".
It is not Rated "R" by the official body that authorizes such ratings.
I apologize if I caused any confusion.
I simply meant to imply that there are some very hard scenes that you might not want to watch with the kids. That's all I meant by that title.
David mentions that he also has a version which has that "hard sequences" removed.
