America’s War on Abortion


America’s War on Abortion is available to watch now:

ITV (UK)
NRK (Norway)
Women Make Movies (Universities in the USA)

2021 BAFTA Award winner in the Current Affairs category

BAFTA TV Craft Award nomination in the Director: Factual category

Edinburgh TV Festival award win for Best Documentary 

Shortlisted in the Best Current Affairs Documentary at the Grierson Awards

AIB Media Awards nomination in the International Affairs category

“When they bomb an abortion clinic, or burn an abortion clinic, I think the Army of God has done a marvellous job.” – Donald Spitz, anti-abortion activist

“We have just a few windows, but they are high up. And the reason for that is, if there’s ever a sniper, we would be able to keep our staff a little safer.”– Julie Burkhart, founder of Trust Women abortion clinic, Kansas 

“They are making a big decision already by coming here, and they come here and this is what they are faced with. This is what equal access to healthcare looks like in America.” – a clinic escort at a heavily-protested abortion centre in Alabama

In this new documentary timed to coincide with the US Presidential elections, Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Deeyah Khan investigates one of the most divisive issues in American politics – abortion. 

The first of two new Deeyah Khan documentaries on Trump’s America for ITV’s Bafta-winning Exposure current affairs strand, this programme goes inside abortion clinics that are under siege from fundamentalist Christian protesters, and meets the doctors who face an ever-present threat of violence, even murder, from anti-abortion fanatics. 

Filmed before and during the shattering events of the coronavirus pandemic, Deeyah meets a man convicted of bombing clinics, and speaks to the women who face one of the most difficult decisions of their lives, in choosing to have an abortion. 

In his time in office, Donald Trump has wooed evangelical Christian voters by enacting anti-abortion policies, and with a political battle currently raging over control of the Supreme Court, the right of American women to choose is under threat. 

Deeyah deploys her uniquely intimate filming style to explore the contradictions and conflicts of her subject matter, going on the frontline to find the people most affected by America’s abortion wars.

Directed and Filmed by Deeyah Khan

Producer: Darin Prindle

Editor/Producer: Andrew Smith


To screen America’s War on Abortion in universities, colleges and other institutions across America please contact Women Make Movies (WMM) here.

For events or screenings outside of the United States of America, please get in touch using this form.


Photos from America’s War on Abortion: