PLAN C – SLIFF Review

PLAN C is a timely documentary spotlighting a pro-choice non-profit organization called Plan C, which is dedicated to providing information, to anyone who wants to know, on the options for an unwanted pregnancy, and particularly about the medical abortion pill. The Plan C organization careful notes they are information providers, not abortion providers, but they do tell women facing an unwanted pregnancy how to contact doctors who will provide medical abortion pills, even by mail. When the organization was founded, abortion was legal in all states, under Roe v Wade, and medical abortion pills had been approved by the FDA. Post Roe, the landscape in which these activists – mostly women – do their work is completely different.

The women in this organization find themselves in the difficult position of providing information, to anyone who requests it, on an once-legal procedure in the drastically changed landscape after the overturning of Roe. Director Tracy Droz Tragos’ documentary takes a look at these activists and the doctors with whom they work, who find themselves in this difficult position. They must decide how far they are willing to go into legally murky territory to provide information to women with a crisis pregnancy who want to know.

Americans are sharply divided on this subject but the great majority favored keeping abortion in the first trimester safe and legal, particularly in the case of rape or incest. Yet since the U. S. Supreme Court overturned Roe, leaving the decision about abortion rights up to the states, a number of states have activated severely restrictive laws or even resurrected old bans on abortion from earlier eras. Among the states imposing restrictions now is Texas, which is where Plan C is based.

The documentary puts us on the cutting edge of this most politically-heated of issues. It also delves into the history, of Roe v Wade and the approval of the medical abortion pill in 2007. Approval of medical abortion gave women hope for greater privacy in this very personal decision, including an end to women having to walk a gauntlet of anti-abortion protesters to reach a clinic. With the reversal of Roe, and now attacks on the FDA’s approval of one of the drugs used in medical abortion, this group now faces greater challenges in their efforts to provide women with the information they seek.

PLAN C offers interviews with various members of Plan C and the doctors with whom they work. The organization is based in Texas but has outreach across the country. Free speech issues are discussed as shifting landscape in many states.

There could not be a more timely documentary, and PLAN C’s profile of this informational group offers insights beyond the headlines and a human, ground-level look at the subject that has raised so many questions about women’s rights and free speech.

PLAN C was shown Nov. 13 as part of SLIFF and it is available to stream starting Nov. 17, 2023.

RATING: 2.5 out of 4 stars