PRESS "HOOKS"
"Hooks" are ideas that catch the eye of a reporter or talk show producer. For local media, the best ideas are personal stories from that community.  There are also a number of ideas in the videos, and in the stories behind the videos, that might interest reporters. You may want to use one or more of the following ideas, or one may inspire you to come up with something else which relates more directly to your community.

THE STORY BEHIND THE SERIES: Producer Dorothy Fadiman's own experience with a back-alley abortion was the motivation for this series. When she was a college student in 1962, she paid a stranger $600 cash, was blindfolded, taken to another location, and underwent an unanesthetized illegal abortion, performed by someone whose face she never saw. The procedure was followed by severe hemorrhaging and life threatening infections (peritonitis and septicemia). She was taken to the emergency room of the local hospital and admitted to the intensive care ward. Because she was in the hospital with a serious condition, the same doctor who had turned her away when she had begged for his help with a safe abortion, could now, legally, perform surgery necessary to save her life. 

RELIGION: Over the last decade, a vocal minority has promoted a concept that equates being religious with being anti-abortion. In truth, people of many faiths support a woman's right to choose. These films document how clergy members have in the past and do now support access to safe, legal abortions from a deeply spiritual position. In FROM DANGER to DIGNITY we hear stories from ministers and rabbis, who served in the Clergy Consultation Service, a network of religious counselors from all faiths who helped women facing an unplanned pregnancy find safe options. THE FRAGILE PROMISE of CHOICE examines the impact religious fundamentalism has had on access to safe abortions since Roe v. Wade. This film features interviews with an outspoken representative from Americans for the Separation of Church and State, a clinic director who was excommunicated from the Catholic Church because of her work serving low-income women, the President of Catholics for a Free Choice, and a Rabbi who held an interdenominational service to commemorate those who died during the era of back alley abortions.

EXAMPLES OF INTERNATIONAL SCOPE OF VISION:
LATIN AMERICA:  The trilogy has been translated into Spanish. Illegal and self-induced abortions are among the principal causes of mortality for women of childbearing age in Latin America. The Catholic Church discourages contraception and forbids abortion in most situations in both the United States and Latin America. These Spanish versions will enable Latinas and their families in the United States to see the films.  A major Latin American Family Planning group has been hosting screenings with the Spanish versions throughout Latin America. POLAND: Activists in Poland have translated the films into Polish, had them subtitled, and are making copies to give to legislators and women's groups. Screenings have been hosted by the Polish Women's Federation. Many journalists attended a recent screening in Warsaw. A front page article in support of choice appeared in a major Warsaw paper the next day. A strongly anti-abortion film, imported from the United States, is shown frequently as part of regular TV programming with no other point of view represented. These films have been refused by Polish television. Instead, our trilogy is being used in Poland by grassroots activists to raise awareness and spark discussion in numerous private, unpublicized home viewings.  Additional languages include French, Portuguese, and Hebrew.