While a strong, complex political awareness permeates all of Zollar's work, some pieces deal directly with issues of contemporary political debate. Lifedance III...The Empress...Womb Wars is set in the context of the abortion debate, but the political commentary developed through the piece channels the debate through considerations of race, class, and individual values. The dark, brooding mood of the opening is emphasized in the movements, words, and actions of the central character and chorus. This central character, who opens the piece, describes her birth [video clip] as the moment she entered the "womb wars." Questions arise as she tells of the complications in her situation and undercut the scene with deep irony: What does the medical institution really know about a woman's body, or doesn't it matter much? How then does it arbitrate with such smug assurance on women's bodies, issue pronouncements on matters of great significance in the lives of women, when really there are obvious gaps in knowledge? What is the agency of an African-American, working-class woman who, forced to raise her children on meager resources, drinks quinine to abort a fetus? The scene is a devastating comment on a socioeconomic system whose "democratic" provisions cannot include some individuals in its fold.