Hillary Clinton and Chelsea Clinton hit the Hamptons yesterday for a screening of a documentary they’ve co-produced called “Zurawski v Texas.” The film, made by Maisie Crow and Abbie Perrault, is now being screened in the five states where abortion is on the ballot.
“This means you, New York,” the women shouted from the stage at the East Hampton Middle School where the packed audience stood to cheer the film team: the directors, producers Hillary and Chelsea, and a brave and hardworking legal team from the Center for Reproductive Rights.
Hillary Clinton, who carries her own presidential aura, cautioned the crowd “to make no mistake about the restrictive intentions of Trump and his associates.”
Mariska Hargitay, star of “Law & Order SVU,” provided star power as moderator of Q&A after the screening.
The women from the Center work with women suing Texas over its Draconian anti-abortion laws. The film, now seeking a distributor, is an unflinching look at women who have had to endure barbaric cruelty when some basic medical care was all that was needed to avert trauma and in the state of Georgia, now two deaths.
What the women want is a clarification of the language—when exactly, under the new Dobbs decision—is it legal for a doctor to perform procedures on women at risk? What is a “medical exception?”
As it stands, the medical community is scared. Doctors face fines and imprisonment. In one harrowing case, a woman is made to bring a pregnancy to term even knowing the baby had a zero chance to live. Calling her Halo, the parents watched her die in her four hours of life. The mother was so traumatized, she subsequently had her tubes tied.
This is what the Hamptons International Film Festival does best: showcase a film that you might not be able to see, bringing in the highest wattage celebrities to shine that light. If anyone can energize a crowd, Hillary can as she cautions everyone.
