Citizen Ruth

Citizen Ruth is a 1996 film that tells a story of a poor, irresponsible, and pregnant woman who unexpectedly attracts attention from those involved in the debate about the morality and legality of abortion. The film stars Laura Dern, Swoosie Kurtz, Mary Kay Place and Kelly Preston, and features a memorable extended cameo by Burt Reynolds. It was cowritten by Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor; Payne also directed the film. The original music score was composed by Rolfe Kent. The film was a drama film nominee for the Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize.

Story
The film opens with Ruth Stoops and a man (apparently an ex-boyfriend) having intercourse on a bed in a flophouse, after which he disrespectfully throws her out of the apartment. She later goes to a hardware store to buy patio sealant, and huffs it in a paper bag in an alley to get high. Ruth is portrayed as a dumb, inebriated addict, capable of doing nearly anything to get money or drugs.

Ruth has four children, all of whom have been taken from her custody by the state, because of her inability to care for them (or even for herself). Her children are scattered among three different homes. Ruth goes to the home of her brother and sister-in-law to sneak a look at two of her children and to beg her brother for money.

After Ruth is arrested for her continuing drug use, she learns that she is pregnant again. The judge, who knows of the situation with Ruth's other offspring, suggests that he will deal with her less harshly if she has an abortion. Through a chance encounter with a group of jailed abortion protesters, Ruth soon finds herself at the center of an escalating battle between people on both sides of the abortion issue. Both sides engage in deceitful tactics to influence Ruth's decision. The Pro-Life people run a fake abortion clinic, where they actually seek to dissuade patients from receiving the proffered service. The Pro-Choice people have 'spies' in the Pro-Life group, who spirit Ruth away.

Both sides offer incentives into the thousands of dollars to the hapless and exhilarated woman, in order to secure her promise (less than honorable) that she keep or abort the child. Wise for the dollar, Ruth rampantly encourages the bidding. She becomes the object of a local news and political obsession &mdash; a figure of the media whom all want to know: will she or won't she have an abortion?

On the day Ruth is to receive her abortion, she suffers a miscarriage. Going along with the pretense of having the abortion, she proceeds to the clinic in order to collect $15,000 which has been left there for her by a Vietnam veteran who is sympathetic to her plight and wants her to choose freely. She then breaks out of the clinic by dropping part of a toilet on a guard's head and walks by oblivious protesters on both sides. Though she had been on the television news for weeks, none of the picketers on either side pay any attention to her actual presence. Finally standing up, she runs away down the street.

A running joke in the film is a "Success in Finance" type tape produced by an Amway type company. Ruth takes the tape and studies it to determine what to do with her new found money.