‘Battleground’ Review: A Look at the Anti-Abortion Movement

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Cynthia Lowen’s easy documentary “Battleground” follows three distinguished anti-abortion campaigners within the few years main as much as 2022, when the Supreme Courtroom dominated to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 determination defending a girl’s proper to an abortion.

The documentary is a cookie-cutter presentation intent on exhibiting viewers how leaders of the anti-abortion motion have managed to advance their targets and consolidate energy by mobilizing an evangelical minority.

Showing as speaking heads, abortion rights voices — particularly present and former representatives of Deliberate Parenthood — are featured as properly, however these girls primarily retread acquainted speaking factors: banning abortion threatens a girl’s bodily autonomy, her well being and her financial future. These segments do, nonetheless, present some minimal context that cuts via the rhetoric of the anti-abortion activists who’re on the middle of the movie.

Lowen spotlights the methods employed by these anti-abortion teams, who’re composed not simply of evangelical Christians, but additionally younger folks and individuals who profess to be neither non secular nor conservative. The youngsters’ cheery dedication comes off as cultlike, with Lowen doing her greatest to maintain the digicam’s gaze strictly observant.

Of the three anti-abortion leaders Lowen trails, Terrisa Bukovinac, the founding father of Professional-Life San Francisco, is probably essentially the most baffling. A self-proclaimed feminist and atheist who claims that ladies who assist anti-abortion laws will be promiscuous, too, she is the face of a contemporary anti-abortion marketing campaign that understands that optics are all the things. For her, the motion would profit from distancing itself from its moralistic picture, showing as a substitute extra like an approachable way of life model.

A recorded dialog between evangelical leaders and President Donald Trump is performed in bits and items all through the movie. It suggests a type of satan’s pact between these non secular honchos and the previous president’s administration, one depicted as extra involved with amassing the assist of single-issue voters and prepared to imagine their ideological place in consequence. It’s a haunting actuality, and “Battleground” offers a glimpse into the minds of a minority main the anti-abortion cost — if nothing else.

Battleground
Not rated. Operating time: 1 hour 45 minutes. In theaters.

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