Rain Without Thunder - Plot

Plot

Note: This plot summary is a linear account of the Goldrings' story. The movie itself does not reveal all plot details in order.

Allison Goldring, an upper-class, white college student, becomes pregnant with her boyfriend Jeremy Tanner (Steve Zahn). After discussing her options with both Tanner and her family, she makes the decision to travel abroad to terminate the pregnancy (p-term is the slang used), as abortion is considered murder in the United States. According to Allison and Beverley, everyone including Tanner supported her decision. Tanner later denies this, though the film makes his denial seem improbable. Allison's father and grandmother are interviewed and openly support both Allison and Beverly. Her father even says that he had intended to travel to Sweden with their two younger daughters as a vacation to disguise the purpose of the trip.

Unfortunately the state of New York has recently passed a law that classifies going abroad to seek a termination as "fetal kidnapping." Beverly admits to being aware of the change but assumed it would be some time before it would be enforced. It is not clear how aware Allison and Jeremy were of the legal change. The law, it transpires, is a reaction to a lawsuit aimed at overturning fetal murder statues because they are enforced almost exclusively against poor minority women. Examples of such women are interviewed at Walker Point (Ming-Na and Bahni Turpin). One had used some abortifacient called a "baby bomb." She was arrested as she bled out after improperly administering the drug. The other was arrested on suspicion of having a termination, which she hadn't, but did have an IUD, which is also illegal. Her descriptions of how she obtained the "uudee" suggest that she was also in a potentially dangerous medical situation.

African American district attorney Andrea Murdoch (Iona Morris) discovers what the Goldrings have done and prosecutes them under the new law, in large part because they are exactly the type of women targeted by the law. The criminal procedures show that doctor-patient confidentiality is no longer guaranteed. Murdoch's motivations are questioned by Jonathan Garson (Jeff Daniels), the Goldrings' attorney, who suggests she is seeking some higher office, although he doesn't question her ethics. Murdoch's own statements suggest that she is angered by the racial and class disparities in enforcement, but that she does not question the propriety of fetal murder law.

During the trial, Allison decides to take the stand and confesses to what she did. She does not express remorse at the time nor does she express any regret later. She says that she felt relieved to get everything out. Beverly and Garson are frustrated by her decision, since it condemn both Allison and Beverly to prison. At the end of the film, the Swedish clinic checks their pathology reports on Allison and determines that the fetus had been dead for almost three weeks prior to the procedure. The Goldrings are released, but Murdoch declares her intention to prosecute them on attempted fetal kidnapping, on the grounds that they had intended to commit the crime even if they had not be able to commit it.