“On the Divide”: three women and the only
abortion clinic on the Texas-Mexico border
“On the Divide”, directed by Maya Cueva and
Leah Gallant, is a 2021 documentary concerning the lives of three women
connected to the Whole Woman’s Health Clinic, the only abortion clinic on the
Texas-Mexico border, in McAllen.
Merdedes
is part of a Catholic pro-life movement and supports a Christian pregnancy
center next door, Denisse, with four kids of her own, volunteers at a women’s
health clinic. Rey, an elderly security guard, is divided between caring for
the women in the clinic and her own beliefs. The film show models
of very tiny unborn children, a few inches long, who do look human in form.
We’ve seen Texas pass an anti-abortion law which makes
private citizens of any state the posse enforcement, and yet it seems to any
common sense to violate basic constitutional principles, encourages
vigilantism, and disregards the legal idea of standing. Several other states, expecting Roe v. Wade
to fall (like Jeffrey Toobin always predicts on CNN with gloom) with the
current makeup of SCOTUS, have passed laws that don’t allow exceptions for rape
or incest; in
theory a woman does not keep agency over her own body even if she is
deliberately violated. That compares to saying a man can be conscripted into
sacrificing his own life defending women and children. SCOTUS will rule on a Mississippi law (15
weeks) in June 2022.
There are discussions in the film about what devices,
like IUD’s, would violate abortion laws in any such state. Olga Khazan had looked at this question for
the Atlantic with respect to Hobby Lobby in 2014, link.
I sometimes see anti-abortion protesters along US 29
just south of Falls Church VA driving past.
I even get criticized by others for my own lack of
“passion” – for their issues, whatever they be.
I visited the border area at the end of May 2018,
especially the border town of Pharra, east of
McAllen, as well as Harlingen (the nearest passenger airport).
PBS follows the presentation (April 18) with
statements by both directors (a sort of QA without audience).
It followed with a short film “A Mother’s Promise”,
animated, by Richard O’Connor, about a child with TPS immigration status who
will soon lose the status (Story Corps).
This film was at Tribeca.
PBS Frontline has a film “The Abortion Divide” (April
2019) which I have not yet seen.
Name: “On the Divide”
Director, writer: Maya Cueva, Leah Gallant
Released: 2021
Format: 1.85:1
When and how viewed: PBS
Independent Lens, 2021/4/18
Length: 79
Rating: NA
Companies: Fishbowl Films, PBS Independent Lens
Stars: ****
(Posted: Tuesday, April 19, 2022
at 11 AM EDT)