Citizen Ruth Movie Review
In the movie Citizen Ruth, a woman named Ruth Stoops is an inhalant abusing, poverty-stricken woman who constantly gets arrested. The judge charges her with criminal endangerment of her fetus. That's when she finds out that she's pregnant with her fifth child, and the state has already stripped her visitation rights to see her other children. The judge also tells her, however, that if she gets an abortion they'll be more lenient with her and she won't have to stay in jail as long. This angers members of a pro-life group called the "Baby Savers." She meets the head operator of "Baby Savers" Gail Stoney in jail when she's having a nervous breakdown on the floor. Gail and her husband post bail and Ruth goes to live with them and their teenage daughter, Cheryl and younger son Matthew. There, she inconveniences their family, but claims to want to fix her life up for her sake and for her baby's. Soon they're taking her to pro-life protests at a woman's clinic, but she starts huffing again, and they kick her out because they find her at an alley behind the clinic huffing and beating their son. They send her to live with another supposedly pro-lifer named Diane, but she turns out to be an undercover pro-choice
While never taking sides and equally poking fun at both the pro-choice and pro-life factions, the abortion issue remains unresolved, much like that of the society in which we live. Some of the characterizations are a little too overboard, but for the most part they work very well. This movie tested my faith in my decision to go pro-choice. I also didn't like the fact that the pro-choice people assumed that she wanted an abortion, and they tried to talk her into having an abortion because they could have said she "chose" to abort her baby, without really supporting both decisions. In my belief, children who are unaware of these lifestyles are the ones who will have trouble coping, and making their own decisions. Ruth is a very frustrating character, but her slow take on the views and her wanting to make her own choices even though she isn't the most educated person adds much to her character. While some will obviously be offended by a film that finds humor in a serious issue such as abortion, I thought it was well done and should make people better understand the never-ending issue of pro-choice vs. I am a believer in pro-choice because I feel it is a women's right to chose what she does to her body. Even though this shows they did not care about Ruth as much as they claimed, pro choice does not mean pro-abortion just as pro-life means anti-abortion. In the midst of all the chaos, no one really manages to remember what they claimed to feel so passionate about; Ruth and her baby. pro-life without force-feeding a biased opinion of pop culture to the viewer. "Baby Savers" president Blaine Gibbons bribed Ruth's feeble mind to come back and "save" her baby. It would also open up the world to those families who seem to think they should keep their children ignorant about the realities in our society.
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