Battleground: The Fight for the Future of Abortion in America. Directed by Cynthia Lowen. Sausalito, CA: ROCO Films, 2022. 105 minutes.

Break the Silence: Reproductive & Sexual Health Stories. Directed by Willow O’Feral. Beacon, NY: New Day Films, 2019. 56 minutes.

Reproductive Rights and Bodily Autonomy in Film

Director Cynthia Lowen presents a warning to the majority of Americans supporting abortion rights in Battleground, a film that investigates the powerful women leading the antiabortion movement, the well-organized power structures of antiabortion activism in Washington, DC, and the mass appeal the movement has to a considerable number of emerging young Gen Z activists.1 Having recently read Elizabeth Dias and Lisa Lerer’s new book, The Fall of Roe: The Rise of a New America (2024), and its staggering level of detail about the machinations that led to the end of Roe, I was able to evaluate the film and the claims made by activists with clearer eyes. At 400+ pages, The Fall of Roe may be too long to assign to undergraduate classes, but instructors seeking an in-depth understanding of these events and their ties to Christian nationalism and multiple social institutions could draw upon the text to flesh out the dynamics portrayed in the film.

Battleground follows two key leaders in the antiabortion movement in particular. Kristan Hawkins, president and founder of Students for Life, and Marjorie Jones Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, are presented as savvy, media literate, well-organized, long-term leaders feminizing the face of this movement.

Hawkins is striking in her ability to recruit college and high school activists, young adults who spout shallow antiabortion slogans and radiate youthful optimism with no clear sense of how the policies they are espousing would work in the long term or what effect they would have on women and girls. With cult-like devotion, they proclaim that (unwanted, coerced) pregnancy and motherhood “empower” women, women “can have it all,” and they want to make abortion “unthinkable” (7:05).

Hawkins declares that only antiabortion activists will be there to support women when abortion is banned but is noticeably short on details. I heard Hawkins speak at my institution in 2022 wherein she proclaimed that her thinking had evolved: on the issue of parental leave, she was (grudgingly, it seemed) prepared to support paid leave to help end abortion even though she expected this stance to produce intense backlash among antiabortion forces. However, in Hawkins’s repertoire there were no other structural or policy solutions to address the challenges of parenting, as is typical in antiabortion activism aimed at making abortion illegal.

Dannenfelser focuses on changing abortion law and has striking access to leaders such as Mitch McConnell, Mike Pence, and even Donald Trump. In the film, Dannenfelser credits Trump repeatedly with ending Roe and federal abortion rights (while awkwardly trying to reconcile her own moral and religious beliefs with her support for a man who shares neither), but The Fall of Roe reveals a much more complex structure composed of individuals and organizations that targeted the US legal system and operated around Trump (as opposed to one that he operated himself). Interpreting these relationships through Dias and Lerer’s work, it is even more clear who gets the credit for appointing conservative judges to the federal judiciary, including the Supreme Court: the Federalist Society and elite activists like Dannenfelser.

The implications of the positions held by Dannenfelser, Hawkins, and their respective organizations are clearly spelled out in interviews with Alexis McGill Johnson, president of Planned Parenthood; Nancy Northrup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights; a woman who became pregnant as a result of rape; another woman who had to flee her state for abortion care; and a chilling recording of a 2016 meeting prior to the presidential election between Donald Trump and leaders of the antiabortion movement—all men—in which they clearly spell out their intentions. The impact of these politics on reproductive rights should spark classroom discussions after screening Battleground, particularly with some structured questions from the instructor.

Break the Silence director Willow O’Feral presents seventeen interviews with cisgender and trans women from varied groups based on race and ethnicity, age, sexual identity, and socioeconomic status who share depressingly similar accounts of the denial of women’s bodily autonomy across a wide swath of life experiences including sex, pregnancy, sexual assault, transitioning, abortion, masturbation, and the medical establishment. There are bright spots, such as the cis woman who enthusiastically described her positive first experiences with sex or the trans woman who overcame significant obstacles to have a biological child with her wife while transitioning. These moments, however, also reflect the intense struggles with structural inequalities, stigma, and discrimination women must negotiate to dictate their own sexual and reproductive experiences.

The candor and vulnerability of the women’s narratives is compelling and authentic. At fifty-six minutes, the film would fit neatly into most class sessions, and the cumulative effect of the women’s voices should resonate with students. However, the interviews are presented one by one, with no introduction, conclusion, or commentary. As such, instructors may need to establish certain foundational information with students prior to screening for them to get the full impact of the film’s message.

The Fall of Roe could be a helpful supplementary resource for contextualizing Break the Silence, albeit somewhat less so than for Battleground. Toward its end, the book speaks to the attacks on contraception, trans and LGBTQ rights, gender affirming care, and marriage equality—all in the name of “religious freedom”—that are closely tied to the Dobbs ruling and represent the next frontier for the Christian nationalists who brought down Roe.2 Instructors may also want to pull materials from the Guttmacher Institute to further contextualize the political upheaval caused by Dobbs and what it means for the lived experiences of women and pregnant people seeking abortions. The sources listed on the page “Roe v. Wade Overturned: Our Latest Resources” are particularly helpful, either as additional information for instructors or short, informative readings for students. Additional resources include infographics, maps, and links to relevant videos.

1 “Generation Z” refers to people in the United States who were born between 1996 and 2010 and who currently make up the majority of college students in the United States.

2 The Dobbs Supreme Court ruling determined that people do not have a constitutional right to choose to have an abortion (Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, 597 US __ [2022]).

Kimberly Kelly is professor of sociology and director of gender studies at Mississippi State University. She studies the intersections of religion and reproductive politics, specifically abortion activism in the United States. Her previous work addressed the crisis pregnancy center movement, “post abortion syndrome,” conservative women’s power in antiabortion activism, and the diffusion of religious ideology into public policy. More recently, she has been working on a book project about abortion activism in Mississippi, tentatively titled Bible Belt Abortion: Race, Religion, and Reproductive Politics in Mississippi. Her work can be found in academic journals such as Gender & Society, Signs, and Social Science & Medicine. Dr. Kelly teaches courses on gender, religion, stratification, and theory.