Shiloh

A short drama set in 2031. Grace, a 16-year-old girl, and her father, depart Missouri to go on a camping trip in Illinois. As they approach the border, they navigate a police checkpoint where an officer subjects Grace to embarrassing questions about her menstrual cycle and otherwise treats Grace and her father as criminals. The officer assigns a pair of bounty hunters on our protagonists as they leave Missouri.
 
A few miles across the border – and a real thing that exists today – the largest Planned Parenthood clinic in the USA. Grace and her father turn the tables on the bounty hunters and lead them into a trap at the gates of the clinic.
 
At their campsite, at Grace’s prompting, the father recounts an idyllic moment with Grace’s mother. The reverie – told in flashback – turns, though, and places us in a hospital emergency room where Grace’s mother is refused treatment for a miscarriage that threatens her life. One brave doctor, Jeremiah, steps forward to save her at risk to his own freedom and career.  But it’s too late. Grace and her father huddle as we hear the mother’s dying cries.
 
Back in the present, Grace’s father collects a large bag from another camper. They return home. There we see what is in the bag – hundreds of boxes of Mifepristone, an abortifacient illegal in 2031 Missouri. The father delivers these to Jeremiah in a scene that implies that this is not the first time they have done this.
 
WHY IT MATTERS: It’s already happening. Red states are passing draconian anti-abortion laws that: criminalize out-of-state travel to obtain an abortion; authorize and incentivize private bounty hunters to report on abortion seekers; and prevent health care providers from providing timely care to women experiencing a miscarriage.