I’m a general lover of documentaries so whilst perusing the choice available on BBC Three I found Brainwashing Stacey – Anti Abortion Camp.
I’ve watched many of Stacey’s documentaries and I really enjoy them despite their generally hard-hitting topics.
What Happened
Stacey went to a 2 week summer camp in San Bernadino in USA.
She was attending a summer camp run and attended by those calling themselves the Survivors, a quite heavily religious group who believe abortion is murder and that life begins at conception.
She s[ends the 2 weeks staying with camp going to protests and generally trying to be converted to their beliefs.
My Opinion
I am quite an opinionated person. I am definitely pro-choice but I wouldn’t get mad or have any animosity towards anyone with a conflicting opinion.
The reason I found this documentary interesting was that fact that this group we incredibly opposed to the option that Stacey could be speaking any truth and because of her knowledge and experiences in the past with women who have been affected by this topic she had more of an educated opinion in comparison to the 11 to 16 year olds that were there spouting off opinions that almost didn’t appear to be their own.
I believe that pro-choice does include considering the values and opinions of those that believe in pro-life. Each situation where a woman goes into considering an abortion won’t be done lightly.
I agree that is every individuals right to believe what they want to but I don’t agree with people forcing their extreme opinions down other people’s throats, targeting women who are already in a vulnerable state and making their situation even more traumatic.
My jaw nearly hit the flaw when he described that from the date that the USA legalized abortion was the start of a type of genocide!
The Verdict
Overall I really enjoyed the documentary. I always think comment like that seem strange as I don’t want people to think I like enjoyed the graphic images of aborted fetuses or anyway agree with the main topic of the show but I thought the way the topic was handled was done with dignity and really gave both sides of the argument a platform to speak. Stacey is obviously passionate about this topic and I give her credit for actually willing herself to be surrounded with such biased views without wanting to grab most of them and shake them.
The thing that really scared me though was how radicalized these teenagers were becoming. I know this term is used a lot in today’s media in reference to terrorism but the way these “children”, and I say “children” through gritted teeth, were saying that they would be willing to give up their own life for the cause was shocking.
I’d really recommend giving this a watch. Whichever stance you have, I think this documentary manages to put both sides of the opinion across in a very insightful way.