War Over Women Proposal 161002

WAR OVER WOMEN A THREE PART LIMITED SERIES

THIS IS THE STORY OF AMERICA’S CENTURIES OLD CIVIL WAR OVER WHO DECIDES WHEN A WOMAN WILL BEAR A CHILD. THIS THREE PART EVENT SERIES WILL UNPACK THE WAR’S MOMENTOUS TURNING POINTS, INTRODUCE AUDIENCES TO THE WOMEN AND MEN WHO HAVE FOUGHT IT, AND EXAMINE THE EXPLOSIVE MORAL QUESTIONS THAT CONTINUE TO STOKE THE CONFLICT. WAR OVER WOMEN WILL BE THE DEFINITIVE DOCUMENTARY ON THE HISTORY OF REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS IN AMERICA.

But this series won’t just be about the past its emotional force will be the present. We’ll focus on current personal stories from the front lines of this battle – the women and families that are affected by our nation’s reproductive rights laws.

These unfolding stories, told in a verite documentary style, will ground the history of this struggle in the present.

-

IN THIS HEATED WAR, THERE HAS BEEN NO CEASE-FIRE AND NO QUARTER FROM EITHER SIDE. WAR OVER WOMEN WILL BRING THIS INCREDIBLE STORY TO LIFE.

THE TELLING

We’ll tell this story with four narrative components: • interviews with a wide range of historians, experts and participants from all factions • archival imagery - both footage and stills • personal accounts from the past – letters, diaries - brought to life by some of our culture’s most recognizable voices • verite documentary segments that track the struggles of people on this battle’s front lines.

These elements will give the series its engaging tone. The varied storytelling techniques and separate time frames will give the project compelling arcs and pacing, and a relevance that won’t recede into a rear window view of this topic — but put the focus on what this really is: a vital, living, breathing war.

INTERVIEWS Simple, elegant, open lighting will highlight the speakers without being flashy or overly dramatic. We will interview our subjects in their environments – home, work, school, church – to emphasize their place in this fight. We’ll talk to thought leaders and people on the front lines; from Donna Brazile to Sandra Fluke, and George W. Bush to Operation Rescue activists.

ARCHIVAL FOOTAGE AND STILLS There’s a wealth of footage and stills from all eras of this war. Dramatic black and white photographs detail its beginning—we’ll use layering and parallax shifts to heighten their effect.

The archival footage from the various eras will be supplemented with fifty years of ABC News coverage of the issues. Careful curating of that footage will keep the series thoughtful and provocative rather than “newsy.” We’ll employ headline coverage of the events that shaped this war as well as undercover camera film and video from its front lines.

Peter Jennings

DRAMATIC READINGS The battles over reproductive rights have produced a trove of letters, diaries and other personal accounts from all sides. Stirring pleas, heart-rending narratives, and remorseful exhortations. We’ll enlist the help of artists and activists to bring those personal stories to life by reading them in a dramatic stage environment.

VERITE PERSONAL STORIES In the tradition of “follow docs” we will take a fly on the wall approach to these modern day sections, tracking high—stakes personal stories of people on the front lines. We’ll embed in their lives to bring an emotional, first person perspective that resonates with the potent history of these issues.

We’ve created a brief presentation of examples of treated still photographs and verite filmmaking. To see it, please go here: https://prezi.com/-ei0-brlkifa/war-ove r-women/?utm_campaign=share&utm _medium=copy.

Each part of the series will begin with a present day story. Several others will be interwowen throughout the episode. This view into current lives will create a “right here, right now” vitality for issues that might otherwise feel only “historical.”

TH E S T O RY

PART ONE: [DIRTY WORDS] The battle to bring sexual education to the public.

Abril Vasquez

PRESENT DAY STORY: Amarillo, Texas. Abril Vasquez had her first son at 16. Teen pregnancy is prevalent in this area, and now Abril wants to change that. She works for Haven Health, educating teens on long-term birth control like IUDs. But Texas’ abstinence-only sex education policies mean she’ll need to sneak into most of the classrooms she speaks in. We'll capture her journey as she navigates this dangerous territory.

Early 1900’s through 1930’s. Sexual education pioneer Ida Craddock flout the law by distributing information about contraception, and suffers dire consequences. Powerful lobbyist Anthony Comstock seeks to stamp out “lewdness and obscenity” in all of its forms including information about contraception. And a young nurse named Margaret Sanger coins the term “birth control” and battles police for the right to give out information on the topic.

In Part One, we’ll ask, how did our culture get to this place? Through the ages, contraception methods like papaya seeds, which men chewed, and lemon rinds used as cervical caps for women have been passed down through generations. But by the turn of the last century, the spread of that kind of information – what we now think of as sex ed – had become illegal. This is the story of the battle to change that – and of how those hard fought changes are once again being contested today.

PRESENT DAY STORY: West Virginia. 17 year old Katelyn Campbell’s high school sex-education teacher stresses abstinence, presents contraception as ineffective, and tells students that if they are using birth control their mothers probably hate them.

Katelyn complains to the media. Her principal threatens to badmouth her to the university that’s just accepted her. Katelyn tries to sue her school district, and readies herself for the backlash….

T H E S T O RY

PART TWO: [THIS LITTLE PILL?] The secret battle to create the birth control pill, and how it shook the world.

PRESENT DAY STORY: Moses Lake, Washington.

Sasha Watkins, a high school senior, was denied birth control by her town pharmacists who cited religious beliefs. They invoked the Hobby Lobby decision in their defense. Now pregnant, and unwilling to have an abortion, Sasha must choose between single parenthood at 17 or adoption. We follow her as she talks to her teachers and parents and has a fateful consultation at an adoption agency.

1930’s through 1960’s. The Supreme Court upholds laws that maintain the illegal status of contraception. Margaret Sanger and heiress Katherine McCormick strive to make a female-controlled contraceptive, but pharmaceutical companies will not touch the idea. Years later, pioneering biologist Gregory Pincus decides to secretly conduct studies on “the pill,” while illegal abortion rates rise, the Summer of Love approaches, and Planned Parenthood clinics break laws.

Part Two explores the long running, strong opposition to “the pill” and the fifty year journey to its eventual creation. We ask, has that opposition changed much in our present day in light of RU 486 and the Morning After pill? And are changing laws and policies once again making it difficult for the poor to get access to contraception?

PRESENT DAY STOY: Marshfield, Missouri.

Magdalena Santos, 19, wants to be the first woman in her family to graduate college. She cannot afford a child. The catch is that her Catholic university health insurance won’t cover any form of birth control. The local Planned Parenthood clinic was shuttered last year due to “safety violations,” so she has no affordable option. We’ll follow Magdalena to see what it will take for her to obtain the pill.

PART THREE: [PRECIOUS EMBRYOS] The pitched over abortion and the growing controversy of frozen embryos.

PRESENT DAY STORY: Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Don and Jennifer Coehlo are both recently unemployed and don’t have the money to start a family. They have made the difficult decision to terminate Jennifer’s pregnancy. We follow them as they navigate the process, which includes going to one of the most protested abortion clinics in America.

1970’s through the present. “Jane Roe” sues the state of Texas and wins. After years of fighting, abortion becomes legal again in the United States. But instead of settling the matter, the morality war is heightened.

Decades pass and deaths for pregnant women seeking illegal abortions plummet while groups like the Army of God and Operation Rescue wage war on clinics and the people who work there. Elsewhere in the country, women deemed “promiscuous” are forcibly sterilized and the fight over who must consent to a woman’s abortion rages.

Part Three examines the question: Does destroying an embryo constitute murder? The prevalence of ancient abortion methods suggests that our views on it have changed over time. The question is as alive today as it ever was. Undercover operatives create a scandal at Planned Parenthood, couples fight over whether to “discard” fertilized embryos, and people are murdered at a Colorado Springs abortion clinic.

PRESENT DAY STORY: Santa Rosa, California. Julie Teleflos, a 39 year old mother wants “custody” of the frozen embryos she’d created with her now ex-husband. A life long liberal, she gains an unlikely ally in a pro-life organization that wants to see the embryos safely implanted and agrees to fund her lawsuit. How will this fight play out?

D E TA I LE D E PI S O D E B RE AKDO W N

PART ONE — DIRTY WORDS The decades long battle to bring sexual education to the public.

PRESENT DAY STORY: Abril Vasquez. Teen mom turned secret sex educator. We watch her attempt to navigate Texas’ “abstinence only” sex ed policy as she teaches about contraception • 1899. Chicago. Ida Craddock, sexual health pioneer, makes and distributes pamphlets on contraception and equality in matters of sex.

• Anthony Comstock leads the nation’s campaign to stamp out “lewdness and obscenity” – which includes the sale or discussion of any contraception.

• Comstock and Craddock clash, and Craddock is sentenced to jail time for her work. She commits suicide rather than go to jail on “obscenity” charges.

• How did our society get to this point? We delve into the history of contraception.

• Ancient birth control: herbal remedies, ancient condoms.

Information traditionally passed from generation to generation.

• We examine the question of what happened with sex? It is at the root of all of our lives – how did our culture become so hostile toward it?

PRESENT DAY STORY: We follow Abril Vasquez home, learn that she had a daughter when she was 16, and the circle of poverty that many young mothers are caught in.

• 1912. New York City. Hundreds of thousands of immigrant families struggle to keep their heads above water, as the size of their families grow unchecked.

• Because of the Comstock Act, there is no access to contraception or information about it. Methods used often relied on superstition or ineffective folk remedies.

• A young nurse named Margaret Sanger works among the immigrant families in New York and receives hundreds of letters from young mothers pleading with her to help them control the size of their families.

• She becomes convinced that access to information about contraception is the key to alleviating their suffering.

• She begins to publish and distribute information about birth control. She is arrested for this work several times.

• Comstock and his allies press on: they are credited for destroying 160 tons of literature and photographs they consider obscene.

• 1923. Sanger opens a second clinic, laying the groundwork for what is now Planned Parenthood. No arrests are made.

• 1916. Undeterred, Sanger founds a birth control clinic in Brooklyn to teach about diaphragms and condoms. She is arrested once again.

• 1928. Sanger publishes Motherhood in Bondage, a compendium of the letters she received while working in the tenements. America pays attention.

PRESENT DAY STORY: Katelyn Campbell, a high school junior, navigates the fallout from her calling foul on what she was being taught in her Sex Ed class: abstinence and slut shaming.

• 1938. Once again, Margaret Sanger is arrested and tried for the distribution of this information. This time a Federal court lifts the nationwide ban on information about birth control for most states, effectively ending the Comstock era.

• A social turning point: at the close of World War I, many U.S. servicemen are diagnosed with venereal diseases. The government's response includes an anti-venereal disease campaign that frames sexual intercourse and contraception as issues of public health and legitimate topics of scientific research.

PART TWO – THIS LITTLE PILL? The long, secret battle to create the birth control pill, and how it shook the world.

PRESENT DAY STORY: Sasha Watkins, pregnant at 17 must choose between single parenthood or adoption. We follow her as she has difficult conversations with her teachers and parents, and has and has a fateful consultation at an adoption agency.

• 1917. Margaret Sanger meets Katharine McCormick, an heiress who shares Sanger’s determination to help women decide when they want to be pregnant.

• The Great Depression hits: as people become more desperate about family size, illegal abortion rates rise, as do women’s deaths due to those abortions.

• 1934. Harvard University. Dr. Gregory Pincus successfully fertilizes an embryo “in vitro” in a rabbit – the first IVF. He is subsequently denied tenure for this “immoral” work.

• The ruling on Tileston and Ullman case in 1943 reinstates some state laws banning any form of contraception.

• Sanger and McCormick seek funding for studies on an oral contraceptive – but they are turned down by all pharmaceutical companies.

No one will touch it.

• In 1951, Sanger meets Pincus at a dinner party. Over time, she convinces him of the need for a birth control pill. He agrees to attempt to develop one.

• With no other options, Katharine McCormick funds this research out of pocket.

• 1954. Worcester, MA. 50 women participate in a clinical trial of the first oral contraceptive under the guise of a “fertility study.” It is found to be effective.

• In 1957, the FDA approves its use – but only for menstrual pain.

• By the 1960’s though, millions of women are on the pill – many under false pretenses. In some state its not allowed at all.

PRESENT DAY STORY: Magdalena Santos, 19, must find a way to get inexpensive birth control when her Catholic university health plan refuses to cover the cost.

• 1961. New Haven CT – Connecticut and Massachusetts still prohibit contraception. Estelle Griswold, Director of the Planned Parenthood Clinic organizes “border runs” to New York and Rhode Island for women who want the pill. Griswold and a Yale physician are arrested.

• By 1965, while resistance to the pill is still strong, one sixth of all pregnancy and child birth related deaths are due to botched illegal abortions.

• Another front opens: using an old Supreme Court decision titled Buck vs. Bell, women around the country, mostly black and brown, are forcibly sterilized “for the protection and health of the state.”

• 1967. North Carolina. Elaine Riddick is raped, then called “promiscuous,” and forcibly sterilized. Her assailant was never charged with a crime.

• That same year, young people heading in droves to California, declare a “Summer of Love” where free extramarital sex is celebrated.

• The Christian Right forms to oppose the pill for unmarried women and abortion, seeing the moral downfall of America in the balance.

PRESENT DAY STORY: Sandra Fluke testifies before Congress about the importance of insurance covering contraceptives like the pill and is called a “slut” and a “prostitute” by radio host Rush Limbaugh.

• In 1967, it is still ILLEGAL to prescribe the pill to unmarried women.

• 1970. Washington DC. Richard Nixon signs “Title X” into law, which provides, for the first time, federal funding for contraception – excluding abortion -- specifically for low income women and families. The bill was passed unanimously in the Senate and with overwhelming support in the House. Planned Parenthood is largely supported by this bill.

• With a few exceptions, “the pill” is now available to every woman in America.

PART THREE – PRECIOUS EMBRYOS The pitched battle over whether abortion should be legal and the rising controversy over how to treat frozen embryos.

PRESENT DAY STORY: Don and Jennifer Coehlo, both unemployed, have decided to terminate a pregnancy. We follow them as they navigate the process, which includes going to one of the most protested abortion clinics in America.

• We explore the history of traditional abortion from ancient herbal abortofacients, to 8th Century Sanskrit medical texts on the subject.

• We examine the rise of the anti-abortion movement in Britain in the late 1700’s.

• In the early 1800’s the first anti-abortion laws were enacted in the United States – to protect women against untrained abortionists.

• By the late 1800’s a pro-life movement had made all abortion illegal.

• We hear letters read about women who tried to control the size of their families with illegal abortions – with tragic results.

• We delve into several legal battles that laid the foundation for right to abortion precedent.

• 1973. The Supreme Court rules on Roe vs. Wade, effectively forcing the legalization of abortion across America.

• Abortion clinics open across the country – offering regulated and safe abortions for the first time in US history.

• 1982. Pensacola, Florida. Anti-abortion activists found a terrorist organization called “Army of God.” They kidnap Hector Zevallos, a doctor and clinic owner, and his wife. The hostages are eventually released, but the Army of God goes on to bomb more clinics and murder several people involved in abortion work.

• The Supreme Court hears arguments about who, besides the pregnant woman, needs to consent to her decision to have an abortion.

• 1990. Mississippi. Right to Life groups set up clinics – “pregnancy crisis centers” -- meant to seem like Planned Parenthood facilities, but that actually serve as anti-abortion propaganda centers.

• ABC News undercover video captures a young woman being pressed to watch a video of an abortion before she makes her decision.

• 1992. Pensacola, Florida. A member of Operation Rescue shoots Doctor David Gunn three times in the back while yelling, “Don’t kill anymore babies!” The murderer, Michael Griffin, whom we will try to interview, is still serving a life sentence.

• In the ensuing years more doctors, security guards and nurses lose their lives to anti-abortion shootings.

• In the 1990’s a slow, steady policy assault begins. One by one, states move to circumvent Roe vs. Wade by enacting stringent – some say unnecessary – requirements on abortion clinics, forcing thousands to close.

• By 2003, the state of Alabama is down to one doctor who can perform legal abortions. ABC Nightline footage follows him over 72 hours as he consults with a teenager who is making the decision to have an abortion.

• The films are later shown to be doctored, but Presidential candidate Ted Cruz and others continue to call for the defunding of Planned Parenthood.

PRESENT DAY STORY: We will follow up on that 2003 story, with a visit to that same doctor today.

• We will attempt to interview these video activists.

• 2004, Washington DC. President George W. Bush signs a bill outlawing so called “partial birth abortions.” Thousands of women march on Washington.

• In 2011, now Vice-Presidential nominee, then House Representative for Indiana, Mike Pence, led the charge to try defund Title X. The attempt failed, but Title X, and the contraception that clinics across the country provide along with it, continue to be under assault.

PRESENT DAY STORY: Julie Teleflos, a 39 year old mother seeks “custody” of the frozen embryos she’d created with her now ex-husband. A pro-life organization agrees to fund her lawsuit.

• By 2015, abortion clinic closures have left five states with only one remaining clinic, forcing women to go to other states where the clinics are now overwhelmed. The wait to get an appointment stretches as long as 20 days.

• In 2015 evidence surfaces that diminishing access to clinics results in more women resorting to dangerous and illegal means to avert motherhood.

• Sept 2015, Texas and California – undercover, self-proclaimed “citizen journalists” who oppose Planned Parenthood -- release 11 videos which appear to show Planned Parenthood doctors selling the parts of aborted fetuses. Texas declares it is going to shutter all Planned Parenthood facilities.

• November 2015. Colorado Springs. A shooter opens fire in a Planned Parenthood clinic, killing three people.

• An examination of the question: what can we expect from the entrenched sides in the decades to come?

PARTIAL PROPOSED INTERVIEWEE LIST • Alveda King, Pro-life activist, Priests for Life and niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. • Tom Davis, former college chaplain and member of the Clergy Consultation Service on Abortion, a coalition of clergy that helped women find safe abortion providers before Roe v. Wade • Bill Donohue, President of the Catholic League of the United States and pro-life activist • Cecile Richards, Current President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America (Pre-interview completed) • Gloria Allred, prominent women’s rights attorney and survivor of an illegal abortion after being raped • Donna Brazile, interim Chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, Co-Founder African-American Women for Reproductive Freedom • Marjorie Danenfelser, President, Susan B. Anthony List which runs and elects pro-life candidates • Wendy Davis, Former Texas gubernatorial candidate, who shared her abortion story during her campaign • Sandra Fluke, Georgetown Law School graduate and birth control advocate • Ilyse Hogue, President, NARAL (National Abortion Rights Action League) • Peggy Noonan, former speechwriter for President Reagan, prominent conservative columnist • Former President George W. Bush (who signed into law one of the most recent pieces of pro-life federal legislation) • Former First Lady Laura Bush (who said in an interview she did not believe Roe v. Wade should be overturned) • Former President Bill Clinton (who signed the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act) • President Barack Obama (who famously protected Planned Parenthood from federal defunding) • Gloria Steinem, feminist icon and author