The Appointment

After nearly 50 years of legal precedent with the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, The Appointment follows one woman as she navigates life under the restrictive abortion ban levied last year in the very state where Roe was first filed. In stirring interviews, “Madi,” a 21-year-old college senior, recounts the heartbreak and fear she felt upon learning she was 10 and a half weeks pregnant just days after Texas SB8 went into effect. With concise explanations and empathetic reporting, The Appointment lays out just how common Madi’s predicament is: at six weeks, the window of time after which SB8 bans almost all abortions, most people don’t even know they’re pregnant yet. The report diligently documents the lengths Madi must go to in order to obtain an abortion, including the 400-mile journey she makes to Mississippi. Combining footage from the Mississippi clinic, interviews with advocates working to protect Roe and those campaigning against it, and reflections from Madi herself, The Appointment ties in a much larger story about the state of reproductive rights in the country writ large without ever losing Madi as its emotional center. For its thoughtful, dogged reporting and commitment to demonstrating the real-life entrapments that would become more widespread after the impending fall of Roe, we recognize The Appointment as a Peabody winner.