Leona's Sister Gerri

"A thoughtful, dignified and intensely moving documentary.”
— The Nation

Millions have seen the photograph, and no one who has seen it will ever forget it: a naked woman, dead from a botched illegal abortion, lying on a motel room floor. The picture appeared in Ms. Magazine in April 1973, and quickly became a symbol for the abortion rights movement. Leona’s Sister Gerri tells the dramatic story of Gerri Santoro, a mother of two and the “real person” in the now famous photo. She was the 28-year-old mother of two young daughters, and she had summoned the courage to leave an abusive husband. When she became pregnant by a lover, her circumstances forced her to accept the lover’s offer of a D.I.Y. abortion. The man left her when the illegal abortion went awry, and her body was found the next morning in the gruesome, bloody crouch the crime-scene photograph captured. When the photo was published by Ms. Magazine in 1973 to illustrate the dangers of criminalizing abortion, Gerri became an icon of pro-choice activists nationwide.