Editing Citizen Ruth (section)

==Plot==
Ruth Stoops is an inebriated addict in [[Nebraska]] who is capable of doing nearly anything to get money or drugs. She has four children, all of whom have been taken from her custody by the state because of her inability to care for them. One morning, Ruth and her boyfriend have intercourse on a bed in a [[flophouse]], after which he disrespectfully throws her out of the apartment. Afterward, she visits the home of her brother and sister-in-law to sneak a look at two of her children and beg her brother for money. Despite being family, she waits at the back door similar to a dog. She later goes to a hardware store to buy wood sealant and [[Inhalant|huffs]] it in a paper bag in an alley to get high.

After Ruth is arrested for her continuing drug use, she discovers that she is pregnant again. At her arraignment, she learns to her horror that she is facing [[felony]] charges for endangering a [[fetus]]; her many earlier arrests had all been on [[misdemeanor]]s. The judge, who knows of the situation with Ruth's other children, informs her after the hearing that he will lessen her sentence if she has an [[abortion]]. Ruth is bailed out of jail by Norm and Gail Stoney, a middle-aged radical [[Evangelicalism|Evangelical]] couple who have become aware of Ruth's story through the local news. The couple takes her into their home and attempts to persuade her to keep her child. On the first night, Ruth, impervious to their convictions, sneaks out of the house with the couple's reckless teenage daughter, Cheryl, and again huffs paint and smokes [[marijuana]].

At the Stoneys' urging, Ruth visits a [[crisis pregnancy center]] where she is further persuaded to go forward with her pregnancy, despite her resistance given her limited opportunities and drug problem. After she is found huffing glue at an anti-abortion protest with Gail and Norm, they kick her out of the house. Diane, a friend of Gail's who participates in abortion protests, offers to take Ruth in. Upon arriving at Diane's farmhouse, Diane discloses that she is in fact a lesbian [[Abortion-rights movements|abortion-rights]] activist and spy who attempts to help women she feels the Stoneys and others prey upon. The witless Ruth soon finds comfort in Diane and her partner, Rachel, as well as Harlan, a gruff disabled veteran and friend of the women who provides security detail for them.

After the Stoneys discover Diane was working against them, they stake out Diane's home with numerous other anti-abortion activists and engage in religious song and mass prayer. They offer Ruth $15,000 to keep her child, which Harlan ultimately agrees to match if Ruth goes through with her abortion. The scene becomes a spectacle documented by news stations and is exacerbated when Blaine Gibbons, a charismatic and famous evangelist, arrives to participate. Blaine offers Ruth an additional $15,000 from his ministry to cancel the abortion. After Ruth finds alcohol in the house and gets drunk, Diane chews her out and tells her to sleep it off.

On the morning Ruth is to have her abortion, she suffers a [[miscarriage]] and becomes disillusioned with Diane, whom she realizes is using her as a pawn to promote her message, similar to the Stoneys. Ruth conceals the miscarriage from Diane and Rachel, and agrees to travel to the abortion clinic with them; the three are escorted via helicopter with renowned abortion-rights activist Jessica Weiss, who saw Ruth's story in the media and felt compelled to help her. Upon arriving at the clinic, Ruth manages to locate the $15,000 Harlan had promised her, which he has stashed behind the front desk, and escapes out of a back window. Though the clinic is surrounded by anti-abortion and abortion-rights picketers alike, they fail to notice Ruth as she walks through the crowd before running down the street with her backpack of money.