Live Free or Die

In this PBS P.O.V.-aired production, viewers meet Dr. Wayne Goldner of Bedford, New Hampshire, one of very few abortion providers working in his state. Over the course of a year, the film follows his struggles and triumphs: banned from his volunteer gig teaching sex education at a middle school, Goldner successfully fights against a Catholic hospital merger, suffers the loss of friends and colleagues, and jovially confronts picket lines, all the while going about his normal OB/GYN routine. His wife, children, supporters, patients, and school board adversaries are interviewed; his primary opponent, the local cofounder of the Right to Life, refused to be interviewed, however, pointing out that she didn't trust the producers or the media ("you're Jewish; Wayne's Jewish; how can I expect you to be fair?"). A personable, upbeat, and outspoken activist, family man, and physician, Dr. Goldner fights the frustrating "I agree with what you're doing, but I can't say anything to support you because I have a business in this town" hypocrisy every day of his life; his story--in microcosm--is the story of the fragility of choice. A particularly relevant program given the recent change of administration, this is recommended as a solid supplement to other more straightforwardly informational pro-choice materials, such as Fragile Promise of Choice (VL-7/97). [Note: A companion volume, Help Wanted, on the abortion provider shortage, is also available for $39.95.] Aud: C, P. (K. Glaser)