{"id":237398,"date":"2021-01-26T09:45:52","date_gmt":"2021-01-26T15:45:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=237398"},"modified":"2021-01-25T17:11:28","modified_gmt":"2021-01-25T23:11:28","slug":"unearthed-documentary-brutal-tactics-against-pro-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/unearthed-documentary-brutal-tactics-against-pro-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Unearthed documentary recalls history of brutal tactics used against pro-life activists"},"content":{"rendered":"
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An unearthed documentary film produced in the mid-1990s graphically details the brutality peaceful pro-life activists endured during the “Rescue Movement” of the 1980s and 1990s.\u00a0The film, “The Brutal Truth<\/a>,” produced by American Portrait Films, Inc., is difficult to watch and includes graphic scenes of multiple police agencies using pain compliance measures \u2014\u00a0including martial arts weapons \u2014\u00a0on peaceful pro-life demonstrators. At times, these tactics caused permanent damage, broken limbs, and even miscarriages.<\/p>\n

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Police brutality used against pro-life anti-abortion activists (Image Credit: The Brutal Truth)<\/p><\/div>\n

The early pro-life Rescue Movement took place in the tradition of the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Although quite controversial, rescues utilized the tactic of peaceful civil disobedience in the blocking of abortion facilities in order to save babies targeted for abortion. At the time the film was produced, over 40,000 pro-life “rescuers” had been arrested nationwide \u2014 \u00a0and hundreds of babies had been saved.<\/p>\n

In the footage, police are seen with their knees in the backs of pro-life protestors who laid face down in the asphalt. They were restrained by additional officers who appear to be inflicting pain on other parts of their bodies.<\/p>\n

Additional footage has been collected by USC’s Digital Library and can be viewed here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To set the stage, these pro-life rescues took place at a time when abortions had hit an all-time high in the US. Today, due in part to peaceful pro-life activism from the past, abortion facilities are on the decline<\/a> and abortion numbers have dramatically decreased since that time. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention\u2019s (CDC) most recent report\u00a0revealed<\/a>\u00a0abortions have dropped\u00a0nearly 57%<\/strong>\u00a0to 619,591 in 2018 from a\u00a0peak<\/a>\u00a0of over 1.4 million abortions in 1990. Guttmacher\u2019s\u00a0latest data<\/a>\u00a0on abortion also showed the abortion rate hit its lowest point since\u00a0Roe v. Wade<\/em>\u00a0legalized abortion nationwide.<\/p>\n

“Besides being arrested and often jailed, non-violent praying rescurers are being met with police brutality on a scale not seen in this country in over 25 years,” the back cover of the documentary states.<\/p>\n

“Sadly, this brutality and injustice has been ignored by the national news media…” it reads.<\/p>\n

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‘Brutal Truth’ documents 1990s police brutality in peaceful pro-life rescue movement against abortion<\/p><\/div>\n

Narrator Marlin Maddoux specified that police brutality did not take place in every city. But where it did occur, the film claimed police often showed up in riot gear, on horseback, using “torture” and “pain compliance” techniques which were “excessive” in nature.<\/p>\n

“The brutality began in Atlanta, Georgia, in October 1988 and these tactics were soon exported to other cities such as Los Angeles,” Maddoux states in the film.<\/p>\n

The filmmakers state that pro-lifers suffered injuries “from broken bones to miscarriages,” and that “judges have imposed huge fines and harsh jail sentences on decent citizens whose only crime was trying to stop the daily killing of over 4,000 innocent unborn babies.”<\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0D.C. police arrest pro-lifers for chalking pro-life messages in front of Planned Parenthood<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Brutal Truth documentary police bend pro-life rescuer’s limbs as he cries out in pain<\/p><\/div>\n

“This wave of activism often comes with a cost,” Maddoux, the founder of USA Radio Network and host of Point of View radio, states in the film.\u00a0His words are overlayed with images of police bending the limbs of pro-life activists while they cry out in pain.<\/p>\n

“Injuries have ranged from having mace sprayed in the face of rescuers \u2014\u00a0including a two-year-old baby \u2014\u00a0broken bones, the near death of at least three grown men, and pregnant women losing their babies in miscarriage,” said Maddoux.\u00a0“However, this brutality has been all but ignored by the national media. That, in itself is a disgrace and an outrage.”<\/p>\n

One tactic to force compliance of the protestors, who often went limp to signify the helplessness of the preborn child in the womb, was the use of\u00a0nunchakus.\u00a0<\/i>“Nunchakus consist of two 12-inch lengths of hard plastic connected by four inches of nylon cord that officers clamp tightly around the limbs of demonstrators to force them to move,” the LA Times\u00a0wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0news report<\/a>\u00a0below details the pain impact of the weapon which prompted a $5 million lawsuit against police after officers used the weapon on abortion protestors in San Diego.<\/p>\n