NO CHOICE: The new documentary 'Trapped' makes the case that new abortion laws work to trap poor women in unwanted pregnancies.

In June, the Supreme Court may consider the legality of Texas HB2, the model of restrictive abortion laws being implemented all over the South and elsewhere. One is reminded of the anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon's famous quote—because if ever there was a case of laws being chains for the poor and cobwebs for the rich, here it is. The well-off can pick a facility in a large city. The less affluent have to bus in from hundreds of miles away and stay for a couple of days, while enduring politically mandated waiting periods engineered to make securing a safe and legal abortion all but impossible.

Dawn Porter's documentary, Trapped tours harassed and overbooked clinics in places like San Antonio, Tex., Montgomery, Ala., and Jackson, Miss. Horror-stories abound: a gang raped 13-year-old having to find a judge to approve her abortion (technically speaking, the court can appoint a lawyer for a fetus). A 43-year-old woman surfed the web looking for dangerous herbal abortifacients. One newly-pregnant woman an autistic child to care for already.

These abortion providers are often religious. The devout Dr. Willie Parker, one of the few men who doesn't look silly in a "This Is What a Feminist Looks Like" shirt, considers his work a tribute to his grandmother, who died in childbirth. (Since Parker is African American, he's subject to a white sidewalk kibitzer's argument that abortion ought to be restricted because it's promoting racial suicide.) June Ayers, an Alabama clinic manager, has to deal with the dwindling numbers of doctors who will perform abortions. And in Texas, HB2 requires abortion clinics buy pricey and unnecessary machines; though abortion is an outpatient procedure, reproductive health centers in that state now must fill their treatment rooms with expensive medical equipment they'd only really need if they were performing open-heart surgery.

Two take-aways from this brave documentary. One is the cheering thought that the providers haven't lost a sense of humor: Ayers displays a bumper sticker: "May the baby you save grow up to be a gay abortion provider." The other thought is the reminder that undefended rights wither away. The cultural shame anti-choicers wield prevents the one in three women who have had an abortion from speaking up and championing this cause.

Trapped
NR; 90 Mins.
BlueLight Cinemas, Cupertino