SAN FRANCISCO — It’s a near certainty that, no matter how good it is, no single documentary is ever going to change hearts and minds when it comes to America’s debate over abortion.

But when a film is merely adequate and what it has to say is both unsurprising and unenlightening, you have to conclude that all it can do is throw fuel on the already raging fire.

That, unfortunately, is the case with the mildly interesting documentary, “12th and Delaware,” tonight on HBO. Directed by Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing, this is a film about location, location, location in the abortion battle: In the city of Fort Pierce, Fla., the anti-abortion Pregnancy Care Center is directly across the street from an abortion clinic called A Woman’s World.

The clinic is operated by an average suburban couple named Candace and Arnold in what looks to be a converted tract house, painted sherbet orange. Arnold routinely leaves the clinic in his lemon-yellow Mustang and returns with physicians, hidden from view by a sheet as they zip by the ever-present protesters and into the garage of the clinic.

At its best, the film reminds us of that despite the rhetoric, produced regularly by all sides, the debate on issues involves everyday human beings, just plain folks who believe strongly about the issue.

At the Pregnancy Care Center, the battle against choice is being waged one pregnant woman at a time. Because the two organizations are located across the street from each other, some women seeking abortions mistakenly go to the Pregnancy Care Center where they are offered free ultrasound scans to enable them to see the fetuses inside them.

The goal, says Ann, one of the key figures at the care center, is to “get ’em in the door.”

In other cases, the anti-abortion protesters try to stop women from going into the abortion clinic across the street altogether. Standing on the sidewalk, they hold up tiny fetal figures to help the women visualize what they may be about to abort.

“God made you pregnant,” an elderly woman shouts to a potential patient of the clinic. “Was that a mistake?”

If you are pro-abortion rights, you’re likely to dismiss statements like that, as well as a sermon from the Rev. Tom Euteneur that abortion is “deeply diabolical at the core of our country.” If you’re anti-abortion, you’ll reject Candace’s contention that “they lie to patients” at the care center to convince the women they are not as far along in their pregnancies as, in fact, they are. The reason, she says, is to make the women think they have more time to consider their options than they do.

In the end, these are two groups who will never understand each other, and maybe that’s the real message of the film.

“I don’t get them people,” Candace says. “I just don’t get them people.”

But, other than the fact that the two groups are within spitting distance of each other, that’s also about the only message of the film.

‘12th and Delaware’

When: 9 tonight

Where: HBO

‘12th and Delaware’

When: 9 tonight

Where: HBO