this is "nightline." tonight, single mom by choice. women choosing to have children on their own terms. >> i always tell my friends, don't settle for the wrong guy just to become a mom. >> chasing their dreams and the single parent starting her family with the help of medical breakthroughs. >> i like to call it i'm ceo of my open operation. plus, all rise for "to kill a mockingbird." the broadway adaptation of the story, morality and race. >> i always remember it was a sin to kill a mockingbird. >> revisited with a modern take. >> we have to heal this wound or

we will never stop moment an ic character played then and now comes face-to-face. and the bucket list adventure between singer louie tomlinson and a new friend. ♪ one life for the two of us but first the "nightline" five. (dad) this i(mom)eam cake needs a freezefreezer's full.

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journey and one that some women are now choosing to take on alone. changing the conversation of what it means to start a family. here's my "nightline" co-anchor, juju chang. >> reporter: this is the moment deirdre hopes will turn her dreams into a reality. >> i have waited my whole life, and i'm starting to get really nervous. we can see the air bubbles. >> reporter: she's undergoing ivf. in-vitro fertilization to become a mom. but this isn't exactly how deirdre thought her journey to motherhood would begin. >> wonderful. oh, my gosh. >> good luck.

>> look at this. >> that's amazing. >> beautiful. >> reporter: it will still be several days before she finds out if the procedure was successful. >> so ten days, ten days is going to be a long time. >> reporter: she's hoping to join a long line of women doing it all on their own, becoming single mothers by choice. you woke up at 42 and suddenly the dream of motherhood had slipped through your fingers. >> yeah. >> reporter: how did that happen? >> being a single mother by choice i've met a lot of women that have the same story. so for me it was i believed that it would be there. and i thought i'll find the guy. we'll have the white picket fence. it's there. but right now i'm on my career path and unfortunately, it was like, wow, life fast forward, now i'm 42. is it even a possibility? >> reporter: deirdre spent her 20s and 30s climbing the corporate ladder, but the marketing exec said she also had

ambitions to become a mother. >> my mother is the reason for that. >> reporter: how did she react when you said mom, i'm going to be a single mom by choice. >> i remember hearing a long pause on the phone, and i'm like oh, she doesn't buy in. she's upset about this. and then i heard a gasp and she started to cry. and she's like this is the thing i wanted for you more than anything in life. and at that moment it all started. >> reporter: did people try to dissuade you? >> oh, yeah, i had a couple people. a person i had worked with in a previous life, and he said are you doing the right thing for the child by having a child on your own? and i was like, what do you mean by that? >> reporter: what did you say? >> this child is going to be loved more than any child in the world, full stop. >> reporter: why not? >> i wanted to have that experience. >> reporter: her eggs were less viable because of her age, so she quickly made the hard

decision to use donor eggs instead. >> there was a moment where i was sad, but i was 42. so i had to be realistic. and at the end of the taday, it was just about having a baby. >> reporter: let's talk about the financial burden. thank goodness, you had the means, but this is cost prohibitive for a lot of people. >> here's where my career actually worked in my favor. i was able to afford pretty much everything because i had worked so hard. i had set aside funds. so when they had said this is going to be about $15,000, i was lucky enough to be able to proceed with that. >> reporter: and you called it the best investment of your life. >> yeah, can you buy a house, you can buy a car, you can buy stuff. i was able to drive my dream and invest in a human being. >> reporter: ten days after her ivf procedure, deirdre gets the phone call she's been wait being for. >> congratulations, you are

pregnant. >> i felt like a unicorn. >> you have made my life. >> reporte this is so surreal. >> reporter: deirdre is overjoyed. >> that is crazy. >> reporter: but she's keenly aware of what it means to be doing this alone. >> there is a courage component, and i think that's what makes some women think they can't do it. can i do it on my own? i'm one-person band if you will. >> reporter: there's no sleeping in while your spouse takes care of the baby. >> right. i like to call it being ceo of my own operation. i get to call the shots. hi, i'm deirdre, are you sara? thank you so much for doing this. this is my single moms by choice group. we get together on a monthly basis. and it's a support group as well as information group. >> reporter: while medical breakthroughs may have made it easier to become a mother by choice, one of these is jane

maddis. >> you can't parent alone. you really need a support system. could be friends, relatives, other single mothers by choice. >> reporter: jane founded a group by that same name in 1981, from this living room when her son eric was just 1. >> when we first started, we got a lot of push back, particularly from men's organizations in terms of how dangerous and terrible it would be for the children. and that turned out not to be true. >> reporter: when eric was a teenager, he were actually interviewed by abc news about their unique family. was there ever anytime or has there been anytime when you wish hundred a dad? >> no, not really. >> reporter: today eric is 38 years old. married and proud of his mother. >> i experienced a female role model who did it all. she had the job. she brought in the money. and she raised me. >> reporter: while he cherishes some aspects of being raised by

a single mom, he also talks frankly about the challenges. >> i missed out on potentially having a little more experience with social skills, things that i would have picked up on from watching two parents interact. but at the same time, i don't think it's fair to draw conclusions from that, because there's a lot of two-parent households that are dysfunctional. >> i tell lily that we have a special family. that i wanted her more than anything in the whole wide world. >> reporter: kayla is still in the thick of single parenting a young child. her daughter lily is 8 years old. >> one mom is enough. one dad. >> as long as you have love, right, sweetie? >> mm-hm. >> i didn't delay having a child for a career, i just never met the right guy. i didn't want to settle for somebody who wasn't the right person. >> reporter: kay was 39 when she gave birth to lily. >> i think families have a

different definition now. there are two dads, two moms, one mom, one dad. >> reporter: but kay was surprised when she learned that new jersey law didn't define family the way she did. at one point, she was denied coverage for her fertility treatments. >> new jersey fertility law as it existed said a man and a woman have to be trying for a year in order to get coverage. so that excluded single women, and it excluded gay women. >> reporter: so she took her fight to the state house and worked with her representatives to update the law. kay's family is about to grow once again. >> soon we're going to have a third person in the house. and he's a really funny guy. >> when i least expected it, the right guy showed up. the decision to be a single mom by choice doesn't mean you're going to be single forever. it means you have the ability to wait for the right guy. >> who's belly is this?

>> reporter: as for deirdre, she's now a mother to 6 month old kelsey. >> the name actually means "brave". >> reporter: how do you plan to tell kelsey about mom, where die come from? where's dad? >> yeah, i think the number one thing is being open and honest. mommy wanted you in her life, but the thing is, she needed help from other people. i want her to be proud of how she was created and brought into this universe. for never before in story or rhyme, not even once upon a time has the world ever known a you, my friend. >> reporter: what a lucky girl she is. >> i'm the lucky one. i'm totally the lucky one. >> our thanks to juju. next, the cast of broadway's adaptation of "to kill a mockingbird" and how its messages resonate today.

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is technology with the power to change your life. life. to the fullest. "to kill a mockingbird", an award-winning novel. despite the adaptation, the core about society and race and justice are as relevant as when atticus finch was first brought to life. >> always remember it was a sin to kill a mockingbird. a sin. a crime against god. only time i ever heard him say that word. >> only time i ever heard him that word, and i asked him why, and he said it was because they

were innocent. >> and i became a lawyer. >> every night you go out there, and you lead up to that. and then you just hit the mark and throw it to the balcony, and you can feel everyone just receive it. >> reporter: it's a show-stopping moment. in the hit broadway play "to kill a mockingbird", aaron sorkin's version of harper lee's classic, written in the '60s, set in rural alabama during the '30s, which charts a path through decency, morality, race and justice. the novel would win a pulitzer and become an academy-award-winning film. gregory peck, starring as righteous lawyer atticus finch who famously defends tom ma accf rape. >> in this country, our courts are the great levellers.

in our courts, all men are created equal. >> let's begin with justice! >> reporter: today jeff daniels brings atticus to broadway, one written through a modern lens. what is it like for you exploring these themes today? things that you thought were sort of outdated with harper lee but now still resonate. >> we're going through a wakeup call is to gentle, but a wakeup call for white america. african-americans watch "to kill a mockingbird" and go yeah, get it? this is not news. but white america is going, oh, my god, i can't believe it. and the way aaron has written it, it's a punch in the face. >> reporter: the story is told nocenc serving as his s l shooting a mockingbird, wouldn't it?

>> reporter: mary badham was 10 years old as starring as scout. today at 66 she says she still carries the weight of that role. >> it's never left me. these are messages that have become even more critical to talk about right now. >> reporter: we were with her as she saw the play for the first time. >> she is an enduring icon. to me and to young girls for many generations. so you can imagine what it felt like to find out that she is here today. [cheers and applause] >> great job. great job. >> you guys are carrying the torch now.

>> reporter: this is quite a moment. the old scout and the new scout sitting here together. this is really crazy. >> i can't, you had told me, first of all, when i saw the movie when i was 10 years owed, that one day i would be sitting next to this woman i would not have believed it in my life. >> reporter: and when you saw her on stage, what did you think? >> i am so thrilled with this production. the script is funny. it's powerful. it has all the elements. the best thing i love is that it has given tom and voices, which i think is so great. >> they say that that does not kill you makes you stronger. what dot things that kill you do? >> reporter: the finchs' maid now has a stronger voice. >> telling those kids to be respectful of bob yule. who in the kingdom of christ are

they not supposed to respect? nobody, calpernia. that's point. >> reporter: there's a line with her in the play where atticus says something like we have to wait, we have to wait, and she says how long are we going to have to wait. >> how long as we still wait, how long before we continue to allow young plaqblack men to be shoshot and killed without doing something about it. >> reporter: how do you feel about "to kill a mockingbird" today for now. >> justice should be served with the truth. the truth should bear justice, not your prejudice. that's what i want them to get. >> this wasn't nostalgic. this wasn't an homage. this wasn't a trip to a museum. this still takes place in rural alabama in the mid-1930s, but i think it's more about today than it's ever been. >> reporter: many know sorkin for his hot-button social

commentary, there was "the west wing". >> i'm the president of the united states, not the president of the people who agree with me. >> reporter: and that oscar-winning screenplay for "the social network." >> if you guys were the inventors of facebook. >> reporter: a modern day poet, "mockingbird" is his latest reflection on american society. >> atticus has a speech about where a mob is where you go to give your conscious a break. that also feels, he could have been talking about the internet. >> reporter: or charlottesville, virginia? >> or charlottesville, virginia. and speaking of charlottesville -- >> reporter: did that spark this in your mind? >> i was looking for moments of daylight, disagreements between me and atticus. suddenly, when he said there's goodness in everyone, it sounded like there are good people on both sides. >> you also had people who were

very fine people on both sides. >> now i know that those two men, atticus and donald trump, they're coming from two different places. that atticus is coming from a place of genuine goodness. >> reporter: a place of decency. >> a place of decency. he wants to be on the side of the angels. the other, i don't think so. it all felt so oddly relevant to me. >> we can't go on like this. we know that. so let's hasten the change. >> don't assume everyone's going to do the right thing. you're going to have to fight for what's right. and it's going to be a battle. >> in the name of god, just let him go home. >> reporter: for "nightline," deborah roberts. >> our thanks to deborah. and next, the former new direction member singing "two of us." ry cargo... or to carry on a legacy? its show of strength...

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friend in yorkshire, england. richard green bonding through acquaintances over the loss of their loved ones, and checking off a few things on green's bucket list. >> flying a chopper to racing on the tracks and sharing a stage. ♪ two toasting to their special friendship. it was the late poet, calittle jabron who said friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity. and that's "nightline." remember we a van that changed usck and chips forever

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