TV Reviews : ‘Stone’ Lends Unbiased Ear to Abortion Debate

If it wasn’t clear before, “Stop the Church” drove it home: PBS’ documentary series “P.O.V.” is designed to showcase independent filmmaking that eschews the dubious claims of “objectivity” so cherished by the Establishment media. And yet, of all things, “P.O.V.” is airing tonight a film on the country’s most splintering issue, the abortion debate, with about as much “objectivity” and “balance” as possible.

Julie Gustafson’s “Casting the First Stone” (Channel 28 and 15, 10 p.m.) actually turns the “P.O.V.” idea around: Rather than offer her own perspective, she observes those on each side of this intellectual and spiritual civil war.

Honing in on the Women’s Suburban Clinic in Paoli, Penn., and anti-abortion activists’ efforts to shut it down during 1988 and 1989, “First Stone” reveals the deep convictions that drive six women in impossibly opposite directions.

Debbie Baker, who teaches her children at home and prays for abortion rights to be overturned, insists that relationships have to be valued more than possessions. But Frances Sheehan, Pennsylvania director of the National Abortion Rights Action League, views the anti-abortion agenda’s long-term goal as curtailing women’s economic freedom.

Sheehan has her first child, while Joan Scalia finds her anti-abortion convictions running against obedience to her husband’s wishes that she not get arrested. “Casting the First Stone” suggests that the resolution to the abortion war will be just as unexpectedly complicated.