We Can Do It Better: Inside an Independent Abortion Clinic 2002
Distributed by Filmakers Library, 124 East 40th Street, New York, NY 10016; 202-808-4980
Produced by Greenpoint Films
Directed by Mindy Sobota and Luke Walden
VHS, color, 33 min.
College - Adult
Nursing, Women's Studies
Date Entered: 08/25/2004
Reviewed by Maureen Puffer-Rothenberg, Valdosta State University, Valdosta, GAWe Can Do It Better profiles Four Women, Inc., an independent abortion and gynecology clinic in southeastern Massachusetts. Four Women was founded in 1998 when an abortion counselor and an administrator who worked for a large clinic decided they could provide more nurturing and compassionate medical care for women - the kind of care they would want their own daughters to receive.
Clinic workers and patients are shown in an office environment filled with warmth and humor: the walls are hung with quilts and posters, office visits punctuated with hugs and laughter. Although the environment is deliberately “kinda girly” a high level of medical care is emphasized as well.
An abortion is performed on-camera as a clinic doctor talks the patient through each part of the procedure. Afterwards the doctor shows what he extracted during the abortion - formless tissue floating in a dish of water - and explains that at eight weeks, no “fetal parts” (arms, legs, etc.) have formed. Later in the film, protesters are shown carrying large posters of much more developed fetuses labeled as the results of eight-week and seven-week gestations.
In extensive interviews the founders and other employees at Four Women, including the doctor who performed the abortion shown and a medical student completing an internship at the clinic, talk about their commitment to reproductive choice, high quality medicine, and to the women they serve. The film reflects their desire to put a human, rather than a political, face on abortion, and conveys well the nurturing atmosphere of the clinic and its vision for compassionate, high quality abortion services.
Although the film consists largely of these interviews, it contains scenes of patient visits including frank comments about birth control and medical procedures. The abortion shown is not sensational or bloody but may be difficult for squeamish viewers.
We Can Do It Better is highly recommended for libraries serving nursing and medical students and medical personnel, for its depiction of a successful approach to individualized medical care and abortion services.