HOLLYWOOD DOES ABORTION reveals how, from the 1970s to the present, film and television have too often relied on dangerously misleading distortions about abortions and the people who seek them. This provocative and lively feature length documentary explores the ways in which abortion narratives onscreen and public policy both mimic and influence one another. Extensive archival imagery spans five decades of television and film, ranging from Maude and Dirty Dancing to Jane the Virgin and Juno, and creates a historical timeline to support the “story” of the film.

In HOLLYWOOD DOES ABORTION, leading directors, writers, showrunners, and cultural critics share their personal and political reactions to these seminal depictions through the lens of today’s post-Roe world. Today, we see how a wide range of diverse Hollywood creators are racing to tell stories that push back against the seismic shift in access to abortion.

A New Documentary from Barbara Attie, Mike Attie, Janet Goldwater, Eliza Licht
& Executive Producers Rachel Bloom, Ruth Ann HarnisCh, Angela Tucker

Are the stories we were raised on part of the problem, and can the stories we tell be part of the solution?

Featuring

Adrienne Barbeau
Maude

Tanya Saracho
Vida

David Schulner
New Amsterdam

Janine Sherman Barrois
Claws

Dana Stevens
Slate

Gillian Robespierre
Obvious Child

Merritt Tierce
Orange is the New Black

Rachel Lee Goldenberg
Unpregnant

Kim Mutcherson
Law Professor

Eleanor Bergstein
Dirty Dancing

Zoanne Clack
Shondaland

Rachel Bloom
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

Steph Herold
Abortion Onscreen

Renee Bracey Sherman
WeTestify

Meet the Team

  • Janet Goldwater and Barbara Attie

    DIRECTORS/PRODUCERS

    Janet Goldwater and Barbara Attie are EMMY® nominated producers/directors who have collaborated on award-winning documentaries for national and international broadcast for more than three decades. Abortion Helpline, This is Lisa (2020) screened at Sundance, won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Short Doc at AFI Docs, and was short-listed for an Oscar in 2021. Their feature-length documentaries BaddDDD Sonia Sanchez (EMMY® nominated 2015), Mrs. Goundo’s Daughter (ITVS co-production 2009) and Maggie Growls (ITVS co-production 2003) were all broadcast nationally and internationally.

  • MIKE ATTIE

    DIRECTOR/PRODUCER

    Mike Attie is a former Sundance Documentary Film Fellow. His short, The Field Trip (with M. O’Hara and R. Ojeda Beck) premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. He co-produced and directed Abortion Helpline, This is Lisa (2020) with B. Attie and J. Goldwater. His feature documentary, In Country , had a world premiere at Full Frame and an international premiere at Hot Docs. Mike is also currently directing/producing a Ford Fdn-funded documentary: Untitled Pennhurst Documentary.

  • Eliza Licht

    PRODUCER

    Eliza Licht was consulting producer on Battleground (2022), co-producer of Disclosure (2022), and impact producer for Abortion Helpline, This is Lisa (2021). She worked in the social issue documentary field for more than twenty years as a television executive at PBS’ POV, a position she left in 2018 to found Red Owl Partners, which creates impact and engagement campaigns for documentary films.

  • Rachel Bloom

    EXECUTIVE PRODUCER

    Rachel Bloom is best known as the co-creator and star of the CW musical dramedy, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (2015-2019). For her performance as “Rebecca Bunch,” Rachel won the 2016 Golden Globe for Best Actress in a TV Series – Musical or Comedy, the 2016 Critics’ Choice Award for Best Actress in a TV Comedy, and the 2016 TCA Award for Individual Achievement in Comedy.

  • Ruth Ann Harnisch

    EXECUTIVE PRODUCER

    Philanthropist and coach Ruth Ann Harnisch serves as the president of the Harnisch Family Foundation, a nonprofit foundation she co-founded in 1998. In this position she has been instrumental in steering both foundation resources and major gifts from other philanthropists toward nonprofits dedicated to promoting women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, and diversity in the media.

  • Angela Tucker

    EXECUTIVE PRODUCER

    Angela Tucker is an EMMY® and Webby Award-winning director, writer and producer. She directed the ITVS-funded program The Inquisitor , about the life of Barbara Jordan. Prior work includes All Styles : A Showtime original, A New Orleans Noel , All Skin-Folk Ain’t Kinfolk , and Black Folk Don’t .

  • Jamie Boyle

    EDITOR

    Jamie Boyle is a two-time EMMY®-winning producer, writer and editor. Her work includes Breaking the News (editor), Anonymous Sister (director, writer, editor), and Jackson (producer, editor, cinematographer).

  • MELISSA LANGER

    DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY

    Melissa Langer was nominated for a Primetime Emmy in Cinematography for Cheer. She was DP for Pray Away and Principles of Pleasure (Netflix), and producer/cinematographer for Attla (ITVS and Vision Maker Media).Description goes here

  • Saul Simon MacWilliams

    COMPOSER

    Saul Simon MacWilliams is an EMMY® nominated composer whose previous documentary collaborations include HBO's Jim: The James Foley Story ; Amazon's Gleason ; Becoming Warren Buffett ; Amazon's A Suitable Girl ; Netflix's Chasing Coral ; and Anonymous Sister.

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SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR FUNDERS