“Blood Money" in London

Yesterday, 28th of October 2010, at the Coronet Cinema in Notting Hill Gate the UK premiere of the  film "Blood Money" took place. This was organised by the “40 Days for Life” team in London.

The theatre was a very appropriate setting as it was very much like a womb (at least to me). We all felt safe and warm and the walls were a warm red colour. The place was full and almost 400 people poured into the beautiful 19th century theatre for almost half an hour before the screening.

Upon entering the theatre participants were given plenty of materials:  the book "A Pure Heart Create for Me (Theology of the Body Today)" edited by Robert Colquhoun, his booklet "Finding Love in a Superficial Age" (referencing Loveundefiled.blogspot.com), and a number of leaflets, including "50 ways to help Unborn babies and their mothers" by Randy Alcon; "icare" by Human Life Alliance (www.humanlife.org), some leaflets by SPUC (Society for the Protection of Unborn Children) and The Good Counsel Network (wonderful angels that work in abortion counselling every day). Most importantly, we were given a small life-size replica baby as he/she would be at 10-12 weeks from conception.

Robert Colquhoun did a short introduction to the film by talking about the first edition of 40 days for life in London (he is the UK Campaign Director) and to the movie. It is great for London to be united to 238 cities around the world. Best of all the fruits of the campaign were revealed, so far 6 cases are confirmed of babies being allowed by their mothers to live. A small drop against the 200,000 abortions which occur each year in the UK, but each life is unbelievably precious. The London campaign has also seen the distribution of 10,000 copies of the “icare” pro-life magazine. Before the movie began Robert relayed a story to us about a group of people being stuck on a raft in stormy weather. Of these people all had life belts holding them into the raft except for one pregnant woman. As the seas grew rougher she was thrown overboard. What did the rest of the group do? Did they decide to write to the local Member of Parliament to complain about the lack of life belts? Did they form a committee to discuss the tragedy and how it can be prevented? Did they blame the person steering the raft? No, the only thing to do was to extend a life line and save her immediately. That, Robert said, is the situation we are in now: We need to act to save these woman who feel they have no choice but to abort.

The movie itself was very informative, though it suffers from trying to attack the scourge of abortion from too many directions in such a short time. We are introduced to the misuse of the judiciary, the eugenics movements and planned parenthood (originally the Birth Control League) and the lie of “safe“ abortion. But as there is so little available about the subject in the mainstream media we have this movie  to pin our  hopes on, and it does deserve this. It is narrated by Dr Alveda King, a niece of Dr Martin Luther King, Jr.. "Blood Money" is very focused on the United States. For most of the initial 30 minutes there is intensive scrutiny of the judicial system and how abortion was made widely available to the people in the US through circumventing the constitution and disregard for medical facts. The movie then it gets more moving with the testimonies of women who experienced abortion, with Carol Everett who used to run the abortion clinic (her testimony http://www.priestsforlife.org/testimony/everett.htm) being the star of the movie and in my opinion a separate movie could be made based on her story. There are various high profile pro-life speakers in the movie: Father Frank Pavone from "Priests for Life"; Father Thomas Euteneuer (ex-director of Human Life International); Troy Newman; Joseph Scheilder from "Pro Life Action League", abortion and then anti-abortion pioneer Dr Bernard Nathanson (his testimony http://www.aboutabortions.com/Confess.html); and others from ALL (American Life League), the  Justice Foundation, and others. It is very moving to see the testimonies of so many shedding light on the pain that woman suffer and how many attempt suicide after having abortion (teenage girls being 6 times more likely to try after an abortion).

Artistically the movie is not going to win any awards. There is also not as  much suspense or emotional involvement as there is in the trailer (which is great) but instead it is packed full of  facts and opinions.

I would encourage Pro-Life newcomers and truth seekers to see this film. It provides a great introduction to the topic and can inspire those who are currently in the confusion of being pro-choice to re-evaluate  their beliefs based on logic and reason. Murder is murder.

I would like to end with the prayer Robert prayed before the film. “We pray for a day when no more babies die, and no mother’s cry.” Amen