Abortion: Stories Women Tell

(2016)

Synopsis

Though the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade protected a woman’s right to choose, abortion remains one of the most divisive issues in America today. In the last several years, many states have imposed restrictions on access to abortion, including Missouri, where only one abortion clinic remains open in the entire state, and where patients and their doctors must navigate a 72-hour waiting period. In Abortion: Stories Women Tell, awarding-winning director (and Missouri native) Tracy Droz Tragos sheds new light on this contentious issue, focusing not on the debate, but rather on women themselves. Centering on the Hope Clinic for Women (just across the Missouri state line in Granite City, Illinois), the film profiles women struggling with unplanned pregnancies, providers who show up at the clinic to give medical care, and activists hoping to sway decisions and lives, offering an intimate window into the lives of women involved in the abortion issue, whose experiences are by turns heartbreaking and tender or bleak and frightening. On whichever side of the issue they fall, choices are made based on individual circumstances and beliefs, and the film underscores the strength and capacity of women to overcome and persevere through complicated and unexpected circumstances.

Cast