A Conversation With Award-Winning "Trapped" Filmmaker Dawn Porter

Rewire (June 15, 2016): TRAP Laws and the Abortion ‘Crisis’: A Conversation With Award-Winning Filmmaker Dawn Porter, by Tina Vasquez 

Rewire talks with award-winning filmmaker Dawn Porter about her new documentary feature, TRAPPED, which highlights the popular and pervasive TRAP laws (Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers) across the United States.  Between 2010 and 2105, 288 laws regulating abortion services have passed.  Porter's documentary illustrates the toll it takes on women in states like Alabama and Texas. Porter is candid about her thoughts about the impending SCOTUS decision, safety concerns when filming, and her reasoning for focusing on TRAP laws specifically: 

People often discuss abortion in terms of morality, but that’s not what we should be talking about. The reason why these laws have been so effective is  because they successfully harm the least powerful of the group they’re targeting. Who’s getting picked on, who’s suffering the most? Women of color,  people who are low-income, people who don’t have health insurance. There’s something so unjust about how these laws are disproportionately affecting these populations, and that really bothered me. I’m certainly interested in abortion as a topic, but I’m also interested in politics and power  and how those things take shape to hurt the most vulnerable.

TRAPPED airs on PBS’ Independent Lens on Monday, June 20th at 10:00pm.