“Our Bodies Our Doctors” tells the story of a rebellion in the field of medicine as a cohort of physicians faces abortion stigma within their own profession and confronts religious control over health care decisions. Their fight takes them into a larger struggle over the heart and soul of American medicine.

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It was not very long after the passage of Roe v Wade in 1973 that abortion clinics and doctors came under attack by anti-abortion activists. With clinic bombings, death threats, and harassment targeting providers and their families, it appeared by the 1990's that few doctors were willing to provide this service. But beneath the surface, a quiet rebellion was taking place in the field of medicine. A number of doctors came out publicly as abortion providers, even as the larger medical community often viewed them as “rogue physicians.” This rebellion depended heavily on working with women’s freestanding clinics and their feminist allies. “Our Bodies Our Doctors” takes viewers into the lives of these providers and their struggles to provide abortion procedures. It explores the importance of settings founded on feminist principles and their profound impact on models of patient care in mainstream medicine.

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The documentary features a cadre of these “rogue” physicians––doctors of different generations who came to train in Oregon and Washington, states with some of the most liberal abortion laws. Their stories are as deeply personal as they are political. As we follow them in their daily work lives, we get a feeling for their deep connections with patients and other practitioners and how those connections sustain them. We see how they incorporate feminist principles in thinking through ethical dilemmas associated with abortion care. We learn about what things were like when they first began their medical careers and the people who influenced them. And we follow their journeys from clinics and training centers in the Pacific Northwest to areas of the country where women’s rights are more threatened.