Trailer: My Body, Their Choice

As Argentina readies itself for the most important vote in its history – to legalise abortion – presenter Andrew Gold investigates the enormous divide that separates pro-choicers and ‘pro-lifers’. The face of the latter is the eccentric Mariana Varela, known as the Crazy Baby Lady. While she shows off her plastic foetuses and preaches the importance of saving foetuses, Andrew puts it to her that her stance is hypocritical – since her infamous father was part of the dictatorship that tortured and ‘disappeared’ people and sold their babies.

As we near the vote, the country becomes more fractious, as out-of-touch pro-life politicians come out with some startling and unfounded facts. These include a doctor pronouncing that AIDS (not HIV) can travel through condoms and the claim that people are having abortions ‘after 9 months’. Andrew meets a doctor who performed illegal abortions to save women’s lives and speaks to young women forced into clandestine abortions under creepy and scary conditions. Many young and desperate women die from these procedures.

The documentary heads towards a climax at the vote itself outside congress. The results are revealed at 4am, when riots take hold and our presenter and crew are tear gassed. All that is left after this is to confront the Crazy Baby Lady in a tense final interview.

The abortion vote became huge news around the world, taking up the NY Times back page and sparking marches in support in Sydney, Paris and other major cities. In Argentina, it means even more than abortion itself – it also incorporates the nation’s secular struggle against religion and the feminist fight in a society dripping in machismo.