Young women were the “foot soldiers” of the anti-abortion movement and “morally bankrupt” Trump

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On “Salon Talks,” the director of “Battleground” explains how anti-choice wasn’t just driven by “old white men”

In order to understand how we got here with the stripping of reproductive health care, we need to understand the people who made it happen. It’s a journey through a pivotal year in the anti-abortion movement, seen through the eyes of three of its youthful female leaders. There’s never been a documentary quite like “Battleground,” which premiered recently at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Its Emmy-nominated director and producer, Cynthia Lowen, spoke to me on “Salon Talks” shortly before the overturning of Roe v. Wade about the women at the forefront of the anti-choice crusade, and where we go from here.

The following conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

There is a moment early in the film that defines it. A bunch of young women from Students For Life are in a room. One of them says, “People think that it’s all just old white men telling us what we can do with our bodies. It’s not. This is about young people in the movement. This is about women.” This is about even Democrats. What are we getting wrong when we think about the face of the anti-choice movement, Cynthia?

Going into making this film, I had a lot of those notions that the anti-abortion movement was – as the girls in the hotel room say – old white men. I was really surprised to learn in making this film that the anti-abortion movement, they’re young women by and large. The movement has its eye very much on the next generation of anti-abortion activists. They’re really cultivating young people to be at the vanguard of the next stage of the movement. You hear these young people saying a lot, “We are the post-Roe generation,” and they’re taking on this identity of coming of age in a post-Roe America.

By Mary Elizabeth Williams

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