From the "People" Archives:

by Emily Bobrow

(indieWIRE/ 04.09.01) -- Nearly 30 years after the Supreme Court's Roe vs. Wade decision, it seems as though a woman's right to abort a pregnancy is in a state of crisis. In the last ten years, antagonism towards abortion providers has escalated, creating a troubling shift in the debate. The conflict between pro-life and pro-choice is no longer merely ideological -- violence, threats and fear have entered the bargain. From 1990 to '99, providers across the country were subject to 97 arsons, 15 bombings, 16 attempted murders and seven murders.

In a country where a "woman's right to choose" is taken for granted, and at least one in four women are likely to get an abortion, a film like "On Hostile Ground" offers necessary insight into a battle that is far from won. Directed by Liz Mermin and Jenny Raskin and produced by Catherine Gund, this impressive directorial debut examines the lives of today's abortion providers, the unassuming front-line soldiers in a war of attrition. Less than two weeks after the police have ended their three-year chase of the murderer of Dr. Barnett Slepian, the bravery of Dr. Richard Stutz, a 76-year-old OB-GYN from Alabama, Susan Cahill, a physician assistant from Montana, and Dr. Morris Wortman, a New York gynecologist who arms himself each morning, seems all the more profound.

"On Hostile Ground" is now playing at New York's The Screening Room through Cowboy Booking. Proceeds from the film's release will benefit Planned Parenthood and Medical Students for Choice. In an interview that began in a SoHo creperie and continued in the more quiet surrounds of Raskin's West Village apartment, both Mermin and Raskin talked to indieWIRE about religion, the dubious status of abortion rights under President Bush, and the small market for important topics.

indieWIRE: A woman in the film describes the abortion debate as an issue where there's "no common ground, no grey area." Why did you two decide to tackle this controversial subject, where there is presumably no middle ground?

"Every time I end up in a conversation with somebody who is pro-life, I always want them to see the film. I want to know what they think of it."

Jenny Raskin: We went to graduate school together at NYU, in cultural anthropology and media, and we were both looking for a project to throw ourselves into afterwards. We were both exposed to this issue in various ways -- we went to a talk by Sarah Weddington, the lawyer who argued [for plaintiff Norma McCorvey (Roe)] in Roe vs. Wade, I had a friend in medical school who was active in Medical Students for Choice, and there was a cover story in the New York Times Magazine which had the specifics about the abortion provider shortage and the violence. It seemed like a great story.

Liz Mermin: Most people of our generation feel like this issue is over, that it doesn't need to be fought. Now that Bush is in office that's less the case, but this felt like something people needed to be made aware of: that it is still a real issue, that the number of people providing abortions is going down.

iW: Were you prompted by Dr. Slepian's murder? Raskin: We started working on the film before Dr. Slepian was killed, but we hadn't started filming yet. It didn't really affect us trying to win over doctors; while they were more concerned about being public after that, they were also more angry.

Mermin: Originally, before Slepian was shot, the whole "on hostile ground" concept was this idea of abortion in the south, where we thought it was the most controversial. But then Slepian was killed [in Buffalo, NY] and we realized we were being a little northeast-centric. So we decided to expand it. Once we started learning about other providers and other incredible people, we thought it might be more powerful to get these different angles. That was one of the best decisions we made, because everyone who sees the film comes out really identifying with one of the providers.

iW: Considering most of the controversy surrounding abortion is faith-based, very much grounded in religious interpretation, did your religious upbringing somehow affect the way you view abortion?

Raskin: If I had been raised Catholic or Evangelical Christian, it would have probably been more natural for me to be against abortion. I wasn't raised religiously at all. I had a total lack of religion. My father's Jewish, my mother was raised CatholicŠ

Mermin: My parents are JewishŠ

Raskin: But neither of us were raised very religiously, so I'm sure it did affect our thinking. I think we were also surprised and happy to find how religious so many abortion providers are.

Mermin: All three of the providers were more religious than either of us. Especially Dr. Stuntz, who was this child of missionaries. It was amazing to hear him justify everything he's doing in terms of Christianity. Where he worked in Alabama, almost everyone we interviewed mentioned God or Christianity as some justification for feeling that people have a right to live their lives.

iW: What kind of reception has your film received? Have you had any flack from the pro-life movement?

Raskin: Not yet. It hasn't been shown publicly very much; we're just releasing it now.

Mermin: It took us a while to figure out what the best thing to do with it was, so we shoved it around a bit for television, but then when we hooked up with Cowboy and they decided to hold off for a theatrical release.

Raskin: We haven't shown it in any way that we would hear from people who disagree with us, and we're really excited about getting it out there more publicly. Every time I end up in a conversation with somebody who is pro-life, I always want them to see the film, I want to know what they think of it.

iW: It seems like a very important time for this film to be released, with President Bush just entering his term in office. What are your predictions for the next four years? Is this choice something we can afford to take for granted?

Mermin: What scares me the most about it is something I would never had known if I hadn't made this film -- the degree to which the Department of Justice and the Attorney General have an effect on who's willing to do this. Dr Wortman's wife says that when he goes out of town, she would get calls from US Marshalls saying, "We know you're alone, are you okay?" They watch these guys and they watch what they're doing. They got a lot of protection under the Clinton administration -- it was very quiet, but it made a huge difference to them. And that's just not going to happen, and I can't imagine that's not going to make a big difference and there aren't going to be people who decide it's not worth the risk. The fewer people doing it, the fewer people out there to train people who want to do it, and the less opportunity there is.

iW: So what's the most important thing you learned from making this film?

"This topic was really controversial; it's a really hard sell on television, advertisers don't want to come near it, and that's true of a lot of great topics.

Raskin: I think it was about learning how a topic like abortion is something you can feel passionately about, and still see the grey areas. We learned that while making this film because that's what the abortion providers see, they don't see it in black and white.

Mermin: And the flipside of that, ironically, is that on the one hand our views of the issue became more subtle, more nuanced, while on the other hand I became even more discouraged about the possibility of people communicating and crossing the divide after having real conversations with protestors. There was no sense of any give.

Raskin: It is a divide, but one thing that motivated us to make the film in the first place is that it's been played as a political divide. It's really more than that, which in some ways is scarier, because it's emotional and deeper. But it also might not have to play out in a political arena. People can feel very strongly about this and not have to think they should vote a certain way.

Mermin: What I feel was most valuable about the way we made this film -- one of the things that makes it strong -- is the amount of time we were able to spend with each of these providers. We spent three weeks with each of them, we were there all the time, we had dinner with them almost every night, and the degree of intimacy that was developed would've never been achieved if we only flew in for four days. I firmly believe that that's an essential part of this kind of filmmaking, which is so often impossible for budget reasons. These are definitely real relationships, which makes such a difference.

iW: So what's next?

Raskin: I would love to do another project like this, but it would have to be a project I feel strong about. This was definitely hard to finish and get out there.

Mermin: I think because it was the first project of this scope for both of us, we didn't quite know what we were getting into, and that made it possible to keep going and get it done. But now that we actually know -- mostly it's the fundraising. Once you have the money the rest of it is pure pleasure. I would love to have that freedom again.

Raskin: This topic was really controversial, it's a really hard sell on television, advertisers don't want to come near it, and that's true of a lot of great topics.

Mermin: Everyone is running around saying there is more of an audience now and everyone wants this cheap reality programming, but when it comes down to the ideas that you're excited about, you realize that if they're not about crime or sex, no one's interested. It's very frustrating. We both have this commitment to exploring social issues we care about, but there's no market.