Taxpayer-Funded PBS to Air 'After Tiller' Late-Term Abortion Film

On Labor Day, taxpayer-funded PBS is scheduled to air the documentary After Tiller, a film that extols the work of late-term abortionists, aiming to evoke empathy for them and casting them as saviors and heroes of women.

However, American Life League, the nation’s largest grassroots Catholic pro-life education organization, is demanding that PBS cancel its Labor Day showing of the film.

“‘After Tiller’ is nothing short of pure propaganda intended to demonize the entire pro-life movement and drum up support for late-term abortion,” Judie Brown, president of American Life League, said in a statement.

“Why are pro-life tax dollars being used to paint a sympathetic picture of abortionists who stab babies in the base of their skulls just moments before they are born?” Brown asked. “Where is the sympathy for the babies, whose brains are being sucked out by vacuum machines by these abortionists?”

The film’s outreach partners include NARAL, Planned Parenthood, and the National Organization for Women, and, according to Media Impact Funders, the producers’ target audience includes medical students, pro-choice individuals who are against late-term abortion, Americans in states where 20-week abortion bans have passed or are in danger of passing, and Americans under the age of 30. This last demographic is acknowledged by the film’s production team as one which has the fastest growing number of pro-life individuals.

Media Impact Funders states that though the target location for the production was the U.S., the film is “gaining traction in locations where abortion is controversial, such as Ireland and Mexico.”

Interestingly, the funders’ network indicates that during the production’s theatrical release in San Francisco, the filmmakers used screenings to initiate conversation with audience members about the then-proposed late-term abortion ban in Albuquerque, which would have put two of the late-term abortionists featured in the film out of business.

Media Impact Funders observes the response to the filmmakers’ dialogues with the audience:

Ultimately, those conversations and “ask” for help in opposing the ban led to over ten thousand dollars being raised to support the Respect ABQ Women campaign, which fought the ban, and led to an influx of volunteers from San Francisco into Albuquerque during the crucial final weeks of the campaign. The ballot measure was defeated.

“NARAL Pro-Choice America has shown this film to thousands of our member activists all over the country, from South Dakota to New Hampshire,” said president of NARAL, Ilyse Hogue, “to spark conversations about the critical importance of protecting reproductive freedom and access to abortion services.” 

“Would PBS ever run a puff piece that was funded by the KKK in order to sanitize and normalize racism?” asked Brown. “Shame on PBS! This has no business airing on a publicly funded network.”