I just finished watching #AKAJaneRoe.

Most of the info shared are items ProLife people already know.

The few directs quotes repudiating her ProLife conviction were shown in the teasers, so don’t expect bombshells.

Overall, the documentary was bland, regurgitated agitprop.

The most sympathetic character was Norma’s lover, Connie, who obviously felt Norma’s conversion deeply. She clarified they lived a celibate life together after Norma was baptized. Her affect was genuine which leads me to understand the conversion must have been real, otherwise

they would have continued living an intimate life together on the DL. They obviously were really living as just “friends” together.

Why would Norma insist on that life if she was only playing a role?

Rev. Rob Schenck was the only other player in this game I felt genuinely sorry

for. While I don’t agree with the direction of his faith journey, he obviously believed he was part of a mechanism which abused and exploited Norma, and spoke of spending the rest of his life making up for this.

Because I am biased against the type of evangelical preaching,

and clinic witnessing they showed in the doc. I could not help but see the other pastor in a negative light. Flip Benham came off as overly law-driven, and while I’m sure he’s a kind man, he fits the bill as a caricature of predatory Christians. This could be the editing

involved, so please share more info under this thread if you find it. I found it strange that the majority of of her current ProLife friends — if they’re as friendly as they claimed to be on social media the last few days — don’t show up in the documentary, even though their

presence is in the background of most of the documentary: the cross around her neck, the rosary pinned to her deathbed pillow, and the coloring pages on the wall behind her which were provided by ProLife advocate @JanetMorana, from my understanding. Also odd, her relationship

with @frfrankpavone wasn’t highlighted- only a short clip of them during an interview, and Fr. Pavone sitting on a chair at her funeral.

My understanding is Norma received her last rites, which would mean she died as a faithful Catholic, again- not shown in the doc. Why not?

That would have been just as important as the scenes with her family.... if the goal of the doc was to illustrate what a complex person she was.

It seems as if the goal was to only highlight those prolifers who did choose to exploit Norma, rather than allow any info regarding

those who were there for her until the end.

When Norma spoke of the past, she became wistful, occasionally trailing off mid-sentence, as if recalling something which evoked deep emotion.

When renouncing her ProLife view, she stared into the camera and spoke very pointedly, at

one point looking down to the table in front of her.

My questions would be:

How much money was she paid for making these statements.

I would also like to know if her daughter or granddaughters were compensated in any way, and if so- how much. I would also be curious to know

what their views on abortion are.

The reality is apparent from watching this documentary: Norma always looked after Norma. I believe she may have been doing so to the end. The majority of this documentary was filmed well before she died, during a time she still had

financial concerns.

As a former broken girl, when you’re backed into a corner sometimes you do things you wouldn’t normally do, because you’ve been conditioned to respond a certain way.

Sometimes you end up hurting people who love you, precisely because you yourself can’t

believe their affections are genuine.

Norma hurt Connie when she expected her to live a chaste life with her.

Norma hurt her daughter when she abandoned her with an alcoholic mother.

Norma hurt the prochoice movement when she defected: no matter what we believe about them,

most genuinely believe they’re helping women. The disgust on Gloria Alred’s face was very obvious- the Abortion counselor was almost weeping at the betrayal.

She hurt Connie a second time when she abandoned her after Connie suffered a stroke.

And in her final moments she

hurt the ProLife family she’d built up for herself.

That’s because sometimes all broken girls know how to do is step on people to get their way. (I can not tell you where I would be if I hadn’t been “taken in” by my Lutheran neighbor and her family when I was 5.)

They can not

believe people are capable of loving them, so they embark on destructive courses of mutual abasement- mutual using of one another.

All I saw in this was a giant “F you” to a world she never quite fit into, for a number of reasons.

And it wasn’t even that compelling.