12th & Delaware

The corner of 12th Street and Delaware Avenue in Fort Pierce, Florida, is not as run-of-the-mill as it might look. Day and night, members of the Pregnancy Care Center hang around outside the abortion clinic located across the street. Armed with photos of dead fetuses, they hope to fight evil by getting women to change their minds about terminating their pregnancies. Then “evil” pulls up in a bright yellow Mustang.

The abortion doctors in the car have sheets over their heads so as not be recognized. With good reason, as we soon discover: in the past, doctors who perform abortions have been murdered. At stake in this battle are the often very young pregnant women, who still make their way to the clinic despite feelings of guilt and fear. If they accidentally enter the Pregnancy Care Center across the way, many of them abandon their choice after hearing the gruesome stories: “They pull the baby out piece by piece.”

In the abortion clinic, people don’t understand the fanaticism of their neighbors: “Why are they playing around [with these women] like that?” 12th & Delaware reveals the anger, the sadness and the powerlessness of two entirely different worlds, each completely convinced of its own mission.