12th & Delaware (2010) User Reviews (7)

They promised her everything in the world, and then they don't deliver.

[lastliberal · 8/10 · 4 August 2010]

Directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady did a great job on Jesus Camp, where they showed the indoctrination of young evangelicals. Maybe too good a job, as they came out as caricatures instead of believable people.

Here they take a softer approach. The battle for and against abortion rages on today decades after Roe v Wade established the right to privacy. This film focuses on the anti-abortion forces right across the street from a clinic in Ft. Pierce, Florida.

This was an eye-opening look at the tactics used by the so-called "pregnancy care centers," who use all means available to try and stop people from exercising their right to choose.

It was an excellent treatment of a sensitive subject.

Fairly Even Handed Look at Diametrical Enemies

[rbsteury · 8/10 · 7 August 2010]

I saw this at the Traverse City Film Festival and again this week on HBO. The first half of the film shows the workings and methodology of the Pregnancy Care Center, a primarily Catholic Church supported "clinic" for pregnant women located directly across the street from the local abortion clinic on 12th & Delaware in Fort Pierce, Florida. The second half mainly takes a similar but opposite view from inside the abortion clinic. Neither side talks to each other.

The purpose of the Pregnancy Care Center is to persuade women to not have an abortion. If women mistakenly (or not) wander into their building thinking it is the abortion clinic, they hide the fact that they cannot get an abortion there and do an ultrasound and show women the size and appearance of the fetus they are thinking about aborting. And for those that go to the correct corner to get their abortion, the Pregnancy Care Center and their supporters picket in front of the abortion clinic trying to convince (harass?) women who are going into the abortion center to change their minds. They promise the women financial and emotional support if they keep their pregnancies.

The view from the abortion clinic is one of vigilant watchfulness and shuttered privacy. Run for profit by a husband and wife team, their hired physician is brought in by the owners in a souped up Mustang (much to the aggravation of the protesters) with a sheet over the head of the abortionist. There is a lot of looking at security cameras and peeking out of blinds at the Pregnancy Care Center across the street.

Multiple people are interviewed including the protesters, the women seeking abortions (some who go through with it and some who do not), and one of the owners of the abortion clinic (the wife) and the priest and main female volunteer in the Pregnancy Care Center. This is done with almost no commentary letting their words speak for their very different viewpoints.There are crazy and scary people among the demonstrators as well as sympathetic people who deeply believe in the side they have chosen.

In a Q&A after the showing at Traverse City, co-director Heidi Ewing was present and she is obviously pro-choice. Yet this documentary is surprisingly sympathetic to people on both sides. Certainly the Pregnancy Care Center is seen to be deceptive in their practices, but the abortion clinic ends up looking like a seedy and darkly hidden business. The motivation for the Pregnancy Care Center is their faith and that of the abortion clinic appears to pretty much be making a buck.

As a physician of Christian faith who has attempted to help women with the very difficult choice of whether to carry a pregnancy or end it, and who has left the final choice to them and then helped them regardless of their decision, I appreciate how balanced the documentary is. It is too bad the two sides do not ever talk or attempt find common ground.

This is a moving and thought-provoking documentary. You will not regret the time spent watching. 8/10

Worth while watch for sure

[Fastballer999 · 8/10 · 3 July 2014]

I went into this film somewhat expecting to be subliminally persuaded into one side of the issue or the other... I was very pleasantly surprised that it was almost sympathetic to both sides. There is no narration whatsoever, which allows the viewer to listen to both viewpoints only through the voices of the advocates on each side. I have always struggled with the issue of abortion personally, and I think this film does a great job of showing that there is a very real human element on both ends of the debate... No matter what the previous reviewers say. And by the way, I don't see any problem with a woman hearing both options before ending a pregnancy... There's no changing your mind after abortion, so I believe that taking a moment to hear alternatives is not wasted time. Very well done film making

Which means justify the end?

[paul-allaer · 7/10 · 31 October 2017]

"12th & Delaware" (2010 release; 81 min.) is a documentary delving into the opposing sides of abortion providers. As the movie opens, we are reminded it is "Fort Pierce, FL, 5 AM", and we see a woman walking around with a big sign "Thou Shall Not Kill". It's not long before we understand that on opposing corners in the intersection at 12th & Delaware, there is an abortion clinic on one corner, and a pro-life pregnancy care center on the other corner. The film makers follow the coming and goings at these places. At this point we are 10 min. into the movie, but to tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.

Couple of comments: this is the latest documentary from co-writers and co-directors Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing. These ladies have built an outstanding reputation (and track record) when it comes to documentaries. Here they pursue the moral aspects of what each side is doing. For the pro-lifers, that means shaming, intimidating, deceiving, confusing, and outright lying to unsuspecting women who think they have walked into an abortion clinic. When asked, for the pro-lifers this is a completely justifiable means to get to the end result they seek, namely preventing abortions, period. It isn't until the second half of the movie that we get the other side's perspective: why do abortion clinic service providers do what they do? Regardless how you feel about the issue, your heart can't help but go out to the (mostly young and mostly African-American and Hispanic) women who time and again find themselves in an impossible situation. Check out the movie's last extended scene where a Hispanic woman, already a mother 6 (!) times over, approaches the abortion clinic... Just jaw-dropping.

I had heard of this movie, but didn't get a chance to see it until I recently stumbled on it in the documentary section of HBO on Demand. Glad I checked it out. The film makers do an excellent job in "12th & Delaware", walking a moral minefield without detonating any of the mines. "12th & Delaware" is definitely worth checking out.

Just one thing.

[elisabethgally · 10/10 · 30 July 2021]

I'm sorry but I had to comment on the guy claiming that 95% women have claimed to regret after having an abortion. When the facts are complete opposite. Five years after having an abortion, over 95 percent of the women in a landmark UC San Francisco study said it was the right decision for them. Just saying. And I hate to say, considering what we are watching and learning about, I actually laughed when I heard him say that.

Haunting Depiction of Deception & Manipulation Centers

[emikkalo · 10/10 · 5 April 2012]

First, my summary title is not hyperbole. Millions of taxpayer dollars have gone to these faith-based "Pregnancy centers," where the staff lies to women not only about abortion, but also about their individual stage of pregnancy (see: Congressman Henry A. Waxman's 2006 Report).

All the patients are portrayed with respect, and this is an amazingly even-handed documentary. I would like to acknowledge the the success of the film's editing and cinematography -- at times, this difficult subject becomes almost pretty to look at. Occasional frames of curved distortion accentuated the fishbowl environment that doctors and patients are forced to experience.

The lack of narration allows the viewer to draw his or her own conclusions. One group appears to act with the belief that the end justifies the means. I found the clinic owners calm and professional, particularly given the circumstances. Their refusal to engage in histrionics does not indicate a lack of concern, and any secretive behavior is reasonable given the threats that they face. The patients, defiant and poignant by turn, are the heroines of this story and their own.

A middle of the road rating for a gutter movie

[jjr-76474 · 5/10 · 30 August 2021]

I hate the pro-life movies and their outrageous depiction of abortion. But i am pained by pro choice propaganda which chooses the same approach as the right-wingers opposants to women rights.

Neither the pro or the anti give any regards to women's feelings and battles. This is why they are equally repulsive.

Of course the manipulation of young women by repugnant, hideous, heartless, lying sons and daughters of non aborted b... pro lifers is heartbreaking, but does it serve any purpose to show them all as non humans?

I know several women who made the brutal choice of abortion, none of them did it without pain, guilt and doubt. They did it because their life circumstances were what they were. They did it because the had to. And pro life as well as pro choice movies never reflect that. Militants have no empathy, no sympathy, just calculated visibility.

I respect women, so i obviously am pro choice, but that doesn't make me blind to the ones who don't understand that this is NEVER a light and easy choice. That giving your child away for adoption will never make it a more satisfying choice than aborting a non existant foetus.

This documentary fails to highlight this and is therefore no better than the pro life stupidities on our screens.