Judging from a handful of questions that followed the film "Sacred Choices: 10 New Things to Think About," the film about religion advocating abortion rights did little to advance the public debate over Measure 11.

A panel of three retired Protestant pastors and one lay church leader fielded questions from an audience of about 75 people who gathered Thursday to watch the hour-long film at the City/School Administration Center. The film contained the perspectives of clergy and scholars who favor abortion rights from Christian, Jewish and Muslim faiths, but many of the questions that followed it were by posed by people who want to see the proposed abortion ban become law in South Dakota.

Cecilia Lang, a Rapid City Catholic and a proponent of Measure 11, said she felt "extremely misrepresented" by the Catholic scholar in the film, theologian Daniel Maguire. Maguire is a Marquette University ethics professor who has been corrected and admonished by the hierarchy of the Catholic Church for promoting viewpoints that it says should not be confused with the moral teachings of the Catholic Church.

No Catholic priest was invited to participate in the panel, which comprised members of Pastors for Moral Choice. The group of South Dakota clergy from abortion-rights denominations formed in 2005 to address the issue of what religion does and doesn't say about abortion.

The local panel was the Rev. Preston Brown and the Rev. Lin Jennewein, both retired Methodist ministers, and the Rev. Howard "Skip" Smith, a retired Presbyterian minister, as well as one lay church leader, Jean Helmer.

Most of the clergy had their own abortion-related reasons for participating, but all said they wanted to help encourage respectful dialogue on a subject that "good people of faith" often disagree about.

"God honors wrestling - wrestling with the issues," Helmer said.

But Lang said she felt her faith was disrespected by the film and by comments from the panel after it.

"I was offended by the comments by some on the panel that I felt ridiculed the church leadership and the pope," she said.

Brown said he participated "to recognize that one law doesn't fit all situations." He also noted a magazine article on the doctrine of "ensoulment" of the fetus and went on to say that "the pope is not a theologian and not a woman."

The film focused at length on the 2003 case of a 9-year-old pregnant rape victim from Nicaragua and the Central American bishops' response to it, as well as on the pre-1973 history of illegal abortion in America. It also quoted numerous clergy who emphasized that scriptural admonitions exist in all major religions to support the belief that abortion can be a sacred choice under certain conditions.

The forum was the second of three sponsored by Democracy in Action exploring abortion. According to the group's Web site, the next forum, "Medical and Legal Ramifications of Initiated Measure 11," will be held Thursday, Oct. 30, at 7 p.m. at Dakota Middle School.