Pro-Life Group Demands PBS Cancel Airing of Pro-Abortion 'After Tiller' Film

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Wednesday, August 27, 2014

A pro-life activist with a group celebrating the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling striking down a Massachusetts law that mandated a protective buffer zone around abortion clinics, holds up a sign reading 'Courageously Abolishing Abortion,' outside the Court in Washington, June 26, 2014. On a 9-0 vote, the court said the 2007 law violated the freedom of speech rights of anti-abortion protesters under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution in preventing them from standing on the sidewalk and speaking to people entering the clinics. — A pro-life activist with a group celebrating the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling striking down a Massachusetts law that mandated a protective buffer zone around abortion clinics, holds up a sign reading "Courageously Abolishing Abortion," outside the Court in Washington, June 26, 2014. On a 9-0 vote, the court said the 2007 law violated the freedom of speech rights of anti-abortion protesters under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution in preventing them from standing on the sidewalk and speaking to people entering the clinics. | (Photo: Reuters/Jim Bourg)

A large Catholic pro-life organization is demanding that the PBS cancel its airing of the controversial pro-abortion documentary "After Tiller."

The American Life League released a statement Wednesday calling upon the taxpayer funded PBS to cancel the "After Tiller" showing, scheduled for Labor Day.

Judie Brown, president of American Life League, said in a statement that the documentary "has no business airing on a publicly funded network."

"Why are pro-life tax dollars being used to paint a sympathetic picture of abortionists who stab babies in the base of their skulls just moments before they are born?" said Brown.

"Where is the sympathy for the babies, whose brains are being sucked out by vacuum machines by these abortionists?"

Last month, PBS announced that they would air the documentary "After Tiller" on the first Monday in September as part of their "Point of View" series.

Launched in 1988 and in its 27th season, POV boasts of being the long-running TV showcase for nonfiction films.

POV centers its focus on projects made by independent nonfiction filmmakers and has aired over 300 documentaries since the 1980s.

"'After Tiller' follows these four doctors as they confront a host of obstacles — from moral and personal dilemmas to restrictions placed on their practices by state legislation," stated PBS in a press release.

"Rather than trying to take a comprehensive look at the heated political debate surrounding abortion, the film weaves together revealing, in-depth interviews with the abortionists and intimate vérité scenes both from their lives outside their clinics and the time they spend in their clinics, counseling and caring for their anxious, vulnerable patients at profoundly important crossroads in their lives."

Released last year, the documentary "After Tiller" focuses on the lives of the four remaining late-term abortion providers in the United States after the murder of late-term abortion provider George Tiller of Kansas.

Winner of multiple awards, the film has been criticized by pro-life groups for presenting a biased portrayal of the abortion debate.

Dave Andrusko of the National Right to Life Committee commented on the negative response found online to the news of PBS airing "After Tiller."

"The initial round of comments to the press release posted at PBS.org were almost uniformly negative. No doubt the late-term abortion apologists will rally their supporters to flood the response line," wrote Andrusko.

"None of that will change the ugly truth. That the lives of huge babies who are way, way past the [initial] point of being able to feel pain, are being brutally snuffed out. And that PBS is willing to give a platform to a film that glorifies the killing."