A new documentary, Blind Eyes Opened: The Truth about Sex Trafficking in America, is shining a light on the “dark roots of sex trafficking” in the United States, including the connection between sex trafficking and abortion.
Blind Eyes Opened was shown in approximately 800 theaters across the country in a one-night-only event on January 23rd. The hour and a half-long documentary includes firsthand accounts from six survivors of sex trafficking, as well as interviews with legislators, victim advocates, and prevention experts. Some show how pornography fuels the demand for sex trafficking.
Additionally, former Planned Parenthood director Abby Johnson connects the dots between sex trafficking and abortion.
“Abortion is the best thing on the planet for an abuser, because it covers up and hides the abuse,” Johnson said, adding that abortion advocates can’t admit the connection between the two because “then that makes abortion part of the problem.” Johnson furthermore “absolutely believes” that Planned Parenthood was providing a “safe haven” for abusers during her time there. ”
“How many times had I ignored a cry for help? How many times had I ignored the multiple abortions of a 15-year-old?” she said. “Or how many times had I been so mindless, thinking that I was really protecting women but I was in fact hurting them? And over and over again, we were sending them back to their abusers.”
Clips from the movie are available on the documentary’s website, including an interview with Family Research Council’s Ariana O. Grossu, who says that “88% of women who are sex-trafficked seek medical treatment” and asks, “Why are we not catching that these women have been sex-trafficked?” In another clip, Dawn Hawkins of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation references children’s early exposure to pornography, and the way that porn is influencing their expectations of what sexual activity is and should be like.
READ: How can the pro-life community help victims of sex trafficking?
Producer Geoffrey Rogers was clear in an interview with San Diego newspaper “The Southern Cross” that the documentary is aimed at Christian viewers. According to the film’s website, Blind Eyes Opened “exposes the darkness that fuels demand, highlights survivors’ transformations through Christ, engages lawmakers, law enforcement, organizations, ministries and experts across the country committed to ending the atrocities, all while showing Christ as the hope for all involved.”
For Rogers, the message is personal. He left a corporate career in 2011 to do ministry work, and personally founded the U.S. Institute Against Human Trafficking. He wants Christians to open their eyes to what’s happening all around them, noting that, in part, we only see what we want to see going on in our neighborhoods and communities. Rogers furthermore wants Christians to know that the healing power of Jesus Christ Himself can literally transform survivors’ lives, as testified by Rev. Brooke Bello, Rebekah Charleston, Michele Coomer, Niki Rowe Cross, Edie B. Rhea, and Lexie Smith.
The documentary website lists information for churches to host one-night screenings until February 20, 2020.
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