The Women’s History Month Film Festival, sponsored by the Department of Women’s Studies, will screen the film “Speak Out: I Had An Abortion,” tonight at the Student Learning Center.

“Speak Out: I Had An Abortion,” directed by Gillian Aldrich, is based off the “speak-outs” that first took place in 1969 in New York City. These “speak-outs” were the first public testimonials concerning women’s abortion experiences.

The film chronologically documents the abortion experiences of 11 women between the ages of 21 and 85. It attempts to remove the stigma surrounding the topic of abortion by presenting the unscripted stories and lives of women who have had them both before and after Roe v. Wade.

The film will be followed by a discussion guided by Kelly Happe, an associate professor of women’s studies and Speech Communication.

The discussion will focus on the common themes and patterns of circumstance that were present in all of the women’s stories featured in the film and their significant differences.

Happe plans to bring the viewers’ attention to what the women left out of their narrations.

She considers these omissions to be more telling about the common opinions concerning abortion than what the women did share.

There also will be an open discussion regarding how the film changed viewer’s perspectives on abortion and birth control rights.

“People need to stop thinking of abortion as a privacy right,” Happe said. “It is a human right.”

Happe said she believes the film puts a face and humanity to the highly controversial abortion debate.

She said she hopes that the film will make people see beyond the abstract idea of “women who get abortions” and remember that those women are real people with rights.

“When people talk abstractly about women who get abortions, it brings up all kinds of stereotypes and generalities,” Happe said.

“People need to realize that these women could be the girl who sits next to them in class, or their own mothers and grandmothers.”

She wants people to walk away from the film understanding the true “banality” of abortion in real life and that just because no one talks about it, does not mean it does not happen.

“Speak Out: I Had An Abortion” is the first of six films that the Department of Women’s Studies will screen throughout March.

The films chosen to be shown are meant to highlight the lives and accomplishments of women in history.

“I really hope the film will empower women to take control of their own fertility,” Happe said.

“I want them to know that they can decide whether or not they are ready to be a mother.”