Sunny Chapman

Sunny Chapman began life as an activist when as a teenager in Project Upward Bound she was part of a school trip to Chicago to the July 10 1966 Open Housing Rally at Soldier Field where she heard a life changing speech by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

At 17 she began working at an alternative paper called the Chicago Seed, where the protests held during the 1968 Democratic Convention were planned. She participated in the antiwar movement, racial justice movements and the struggle for women’s rights during the 60s and 70s.

Sunny Chapman had an (illegal) Jane abortion in Chicago in 1969. Her experience led her to years of abortion rights activism with groups like Planned Parenthood and independent clinics.

In the late 80s she was walking into a Planned Parenthood clinic to get information about birth control and was knocked to the ground by an anti abortion protester who was screaming at her not to kill her baby. Her baby had been born a healthy baby girl in 1976 and Ms. Chapman was not currently pregnant.

This led to focusing primarily on reproductive health activism. She was a volunteer safety escort at a clinic for years and during that time began videotaping the aggressive and often violent behavior of anti-choice activism. Many of the videotapes she made were used in court cases, including two federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) cases brought by theDOJ.

She has produced two documentaries about crisis pregnancy centers: Misguidance, and In Bad Faith, both distributed by The Cinema Guild. She is available for interviews on camera as well as via phone.

She is now retired from activism and spends her time in the studio making art, reading books and gardening. But she is ready to come back and do whatever she can to help women get the care they need if indeed Roe is overturned.

Sub-specialties:

Speaking about having had a Jane abortion

Recounting what women faced pre-Roe, not only in obtaining abortion but even birth control.

Her intimate experience with antichoice activists and leaders over a period of several years, not just interviewing and videotaping. I was invited to private church meetings, meals, bus rides, etc.

And the harassment that sometimes resulted from that, threatening phone calls, doxxing, stalking and death threats.

Chapman researched crisis pregnancy centers and made two short documentaries about them, distributed by Cinema Guild.