Where Are My Children?

Where Are My Children? is a 1916 silent anti-abortion film which tells the story of a district attorney who, while prosecuting a doctor for illegal abortions, finds out that society people, including his wife, used the doctor's services. The film was popular here, though there were court cases trying to block it from being shown and it was banned in at least one state. (The book burners of their day, I imagine.) Lois Weber, the director, is now considered one of the most important and prolific film directors in the era of silent films and one of American cinema's first genuine auteurs. She died destitute of a bleeding ulcer in 1939 at the age of 60.

Film School Rejects says, "First-wave feminism sprung from the birth control movement, which is on full display in Weber’s controversial 1916 film. ... Thanks to Weber’s insistence on bringing tough realities into narrative film, we can see how women viewed the subject of birth control and abortion more than one hundred years ago ... The outdated morality within the plot of Where Are My Children? is vastly different than what is believed today in terms of a woman’s right to abortions and why birth control is important."

The Science History Institute says the film's "central question —who “deserves” access to reproductive rights— still resonates today" and

To a modern audience a movie that is pro–birth control but antiabortion, and advocates for certain women to have children while others should not, seems odd, if not outright offensive. However, Lois Weber created Where Are My Children? within a eugenics framework, and when viewed from that perspective, the film makes more sense.

via YouTube: