The Silent Scream

The Silent Scream
Original 1984 VHS cover
Directed by	Jack Duane Dabner
Produced by	Jack Duane Dabner, executive producer: Donald S. Smith
Written by	Donald S. Smith, founder of Crusade for Life
Narrated by	Bernard N. Nathanson
Music by	James Gabriel Stipech
Cinematography	Roger Boller
Edited by	Dan R. Fouts
Distributed by	American Portrait Films
Release date	1984 (1984)
Running time	28 mins.
Country	USA
Language	English

The Silent Scream is a 1984 anti-abortion educational film directed by Jack Duane Dabner and narrated by Bernard Nathanson, an obstetrician, NARAL Pro-Choice America founder, and abortion provider turned pro-life activist, and produced in partnership with the National Right to Life Committee. The film depicts the abortion process via ultrasound and shows an abortion taking place in the uterus. During the abortion process, the fetus is described as appearing to make outcries of pain and discomfort. The video has been a popular tool used by the pro-life campaign in arguing against abortion, but it has been criticized as misleading by members of the medical community.

Nathanson credits then-president Ronald Reagan for inspiring him to make The Silent Scream. In a speech to the Association of National Religious Broadcasters in January 1984, Reagan stated that a fetus suffers "long and agonizing pain" during an abortion. The media and the medical community disputed Reagan's remarks. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists issued a statement in response to the president's comment, saying that the neurological pathways necessary to experience pain do not begin to develop until the third trimester of pregnancy. Nathanson agreed with the president and issued a counterstatement. When critics continued to dispute that a fetus feels pain during the first two trimesters of pregnancy, Nathanson decided to make a movie, saying "I mulled it over and thought there's only one way we can resolve this issue, and that's by photographing an abortion, beginning to end."

Nathanson, an obstetrician, serves as both the medical expert and narrator of the film, describing the events of the abortion as they unfold. He begins by stating the viewer is about to witness the "dazzling" new "science of fetology" and to witness an abortion in real time "from the victim's vantage point." The film compiled a series of still ultrasound images of the abortion of a twelve-week-old fetus, which Nathanson describes as "a child," spliced together to create the video.