Why did New England Patriots tight end Benjamin Watson decide to make a documentary about abortion?
After New York passed the Reproductive Health Act, which expanded abortion access, and states such as Alabama and Georgia responded by restricting abortion, Watson realized that “people were talking about it in a way that they hadn’t been before,” he said.
After a partial screening of his documentary, Divided Hearts of America, at the Conservative Political Action Conference last week, Watson opened up about why he decided to make the film in the first place.
“In light of what’s happening, it just felt like there was something larger at stake for our country,” he said.
This is a statement you might expect to hear from the pro-choice crowd, but Watson is a pro-life Christian who says his faith is what motivates him. And recently, it inspired him to make a documentary.
Watson, who is married with seven kids, has been a prolific activist in the past, speaking on issues from race to religion. Now, to spread his pro-life message, he’s turning to cinema.
In a rough cut of Divided Hearts of America, the documentary opens by demonstrating just how divided the nation has grown on the issue of abortion. Sound bites of everyone from TV anchors to President Barack Obama reveal vastly different perspectives on the meaning of life.
The documentary will focus on this division, aiming to present arguments from both sides of the debate. Through sections that concentrate on race, politics, medicine, and ethics in relation to abortion, Divided Hearts of America will include clips of many activists sharing their stories. Among others, it features Ben Carson; Alveda King, the niece of Martin Luther King Jr.; and Destiny Herndon-De La Rosa, founder of pro-life group New Wave Feminists, which focuses on promoting life within the womb and for all the years after.
Watson said the idea of making a documentary came to life when he connected with a small group of filmmakers with the same mission. Divided Hearts of America is produced by Movie to Movement, a company whose mission “is to promote the incomparable dignity and beauty of the human person through the power of film.”
Watson may have strong opinions about when the dignity of the human person begins, but he’s trying not to make Divided Hearts of America a partisan project.
“One of the reasons why I wanted to engage in this way was because … this is an emotional issue,” he said. “But I want it to be a place where people can hear the other side’s argument, even if they don’t agree with them, they can see kind of a full-spectrum of how this issue affects everybody and why people think the way they think, while eventually coming back to our convictions that we need to protect life and also [the life of] of the mother.”
The documentary, in post-production now, is slated to come out later this year. And it just might offer a unique perspective not just on abortion, but also on our partisan divide.
“Hopefully,” Watson said, “people are surprised with the fact that I’m able to navigate and speak to people who I really, really don’t agree with.”
