Documentary filmmakers Ann McIlhenney (l) and Phelim McAleer
Documentary filmmakers Ann McIlhenney (l) and Phelim McAleer

The online crowdfunding site Kickstarter has been brought to heel by documentary filmmakers Phelim McAleer and Ann McIlhenney, whose extremely successful fundraising effort at competing crowdfunding site Indiegogo obviously caused Kickstarter to regret their decision to give in to pro-abortion activists who caused the site to cancel the filmmakers’ proposal to fund a documentary on late-term abortionist and performer of multiple infanticides Kermit Gosnell.

Yesterday Kickstarter announced a new Launch Now feature which allows creators to bypass the site’s “Community Managers,” who had been functioning in part as political correctness censors, most blatantly in the case of the Gosnell proposal.The Launch Now option, the Kickstarter announcement states, is currently available to 60 percent of proposed projects and will expand to other projects in the coming weeks. Whether Kickstarter will use those limitations to curtail other projects that make certain activists uncomfortable is currently unknown.

Kickstarter, of course, has a right and indeed a responsibility to ensure that the projects being funded on the site are legitimate enterprises, but the policy of allowing political bullies to halt projects such as the Gosnell film was unjustifiable. This is a big victory, but it remains to be seen whether it will have a lasting effect at the site. In any case, the competition from Indiegogo has proven highly salutary, and it appears that the Gosnell film will be produced with an ample budget.