Review

A scathingly funny satire that dares to take on the supercharged issue of abortion. Dern is Ruth Stoops, a hard-core skid-row regular. Pregnant and hauled before a local magistrate, she's ordered by the court to have an abortion. Just like that she finds herself at the center of a mushrooming controversy. The first to "adopt" her are local pro-lifers Place and Smith, who attempt to make a good Christian of her. Eventually, the other side catches wind and she's stolen away by a couple of radical lesbians (Kurtz and Preston). With both sides wanting to make her their respective "abortion poster child," Ruth smells opportunity -- especially when "Baby Savers" president (Reynolds) offers a cash reward for her not to have an abortion. Though writer-director Payne seems to express a mildly pro-choice point of view, he leaves no one unscathed as he lampoons both sides for their unyielding zealotry with hilarious results.