Elizabeth Heffron looks at tough choices.

St. Thomas Aquinas, the 13th-century Italian philosopher-theologian and patron of Roman Catholic education, sits in a Sharper Image chair and shares his thoughts on abortion.

A 17th-century midwife offers her view. Chiming in are the present-day friends, family, doctor and spouse of Mitzi, a 19-year-old Washington Naval wife who has to decide whether to terminate her 6-month-old fetus.

The baby has a brain stem but no brain because of anencephaly, a rare disorder that either will cause death in the womb or soon after birth. Compounding the decision is the refusal of the military to cover the costs because of federal funding restrictions for abortion unless the woman’s life is in danger.

Thus unfolds “Mitzi’s Abortion,” written by Bainbridge playwright Elizabeth Heffron and set to make its debut this weekend at the ACT Theatre in Seattle. It was commissioned for the 2003 FringeACT Festival and earned Heffron the first ACT New Play Award.

Heffron chose this powerful topic because she is worried about reproductive issues and the policies the government and insurance companies make with little regard for the individuals they impact.

“It’s worth it to take the risk,” she said. “A lot is going down. We need to look at what we’re doing.”

A newspaper column she read in 2002 about a Navy wife in Everett was Heffron’s inspiration. What she learned about Navy medical policy gave her the hook for her play: abortion and what happens to a woman in pregnancy, psychologically as well as physically.

She spent considerable time researching the subject, absorbing medical accounts from doctors and scientists and theological treatises.

“I’m looking at the topic from both sides and putting it in a historical perspective. The Catholic Church has a 2,000-year history of this stuff. (What is said now) has not always been their stance. Our history seems to go back only 10 to 15 years,” she said. “In the late 1800s, the Vatican had to decide a late-term abortion for a woman who was going to die. They called it ‘a necessary cruelty.’”

Often what Heffron learned was disturbing. Parents in China and India are aborting daughters because only sons are valued. Private corporations in the U.S. are guaranteeing the sex of a child.

“There is no democratic bio-ethic committee debating these issues from a public viewpoint,” she said. “There is very repressive law-making going on. It just is crazy.”

Heffron’s intent is to broaden viewpoints, not bash anybody over the head.

“I’d love (audiences) to come away wanting to talk about the issue more and finding more sides to it that they didn’t know were there,” she said. “Talking about it without a lot of shame would be fantastic.”

Heffron and her family, including two teen daughters, moved to Bainbridge from Seattle in 2002.

“I like to study the brain,” said Heffron, who has a bachelor of science degree in psycho-biology, the study of neurophysiology, from UCLA. “I loved the theory, I hated the labs.”

Her move to Seattle in the 1980s led her to writing and acting. From there she staged solo shows and site-specific musicals. Her play “New Patagonia” was produced by the Seattle Repertory Theatre; other works were staged in Vancouver, B.C., New York, St. Louis and San Francisco.

Heffron is a teaching artist for ACT’s Young Playwrights Program – for middle and high schools on the island and in Seattle – and a principal playwright at Seattle Dramatists.

In the winter, she helps lead writing workshops at the women’s correctional facility in Gig Harbor.

“You have to do eight other things as you keep your life rolling,” she said.