When Tracy Droz Tragos began filming Plan C in 2019, her new documentary about the network of activists and doctors who help Americans access abortion pills, which are approved by FDA but restricted in certain states, she knew that some people would find it a sensitive subject. She didn’t anticipate that she would have to fight for her rights.
When Tracy Droz Tragos began filming Plan C in 2019, her new documentary about a network of activists and skilled professionals assisting Americans in obtaining abortion pills—which are FDA-approved but limited in some states—she was aware that some viewers might find the topic to be sensitive. She did n’t anticipate, however, that she would have to struggle to find a home for the movie or encounter the same obstacles as some of the activists she followed.
On a Zoom call this week, Droz Tragos mentioned the movie and said,” It was not easy to get this out.”
She claimed that she produced the documentary on her own, accruing$ 250, 000 in debt to do so. Droz Tragos informed me that after it was finished, some of the biggest streamers—Netflix, Hulu, and Max—refused to pick it up. The biggest pushback was,” It’s to democratic,” she continued. Although one of Droz Tragos’s earlier documentaries,” Abortion: Stories Women Tell,” is available on Max, Spokespeople for Netflix, Hulu, and Max did n’t respond to Mother Jones ‘ questions about why they decided against watching the documentary.
Plan C describes a company with the exact name that links expectant women to doctors who can administer abortion pills. According to the Guttmacher Institute, medication abortion generally consists of two pills: misoprostol, which causes the cervix to contract and expel the pregnancy, and mifepristone, a hormone that blocks the progesterone hormone.
A federal judge briefly suspended regulations that mandated people go to pharmacies or doctor’s offices to obtain abortion pills during the pandemic, allowing them to be shipped by mail and, as a result, much easier to access. Prior to that decision, a group of women, including Francine Coeytaux, who plays starring role in the movie, had already started mobilizing healthcare providers and activists to mail the pills to people all over the nation in response to the escalating lawful restrictions on abortion. Plan C’s work became yet more urgent following the Supreme Court ‘ Dobbs ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade next year. Although a lawsuit brought by anti-abortion activists is now pending before the Supreme Court, the FDA has since made abortion pills completely available by mail.
Droz Tragos has been successful in getting the movie shown at festivals all over the nation, including Sundance. Additionally, Plan C was made available on demand and on a number of streaming services on Tuesday, including Apple TV, Amazon Prime, and YouTube Movies. However, Coeytaux claimed that she “absolutely” understands the difficulties Droz Tragos encountered in producing and disseminating the movie as a miniature representation of the Right’s growing effort to restrict yet the dissemination of information about abortion access, particularly online.
The Right, according to Coeytaux, has shifted its attention away from their previous strategy of trying to close clinics and toward attempting to block” this new model of care—the option of being allowed to take matters into your own hands by getting access to pills and information.”
This week, I had a conversation with Droz Tragos and Coeytaux to go over how they felt about the film’s attempts to make and promote it and how it would affect the development of medication abortion.
This interview has been edited and slightly condensed.
Did you foresee that it might be challenging to get the movie out when you were making it?
Droz Tragos: I was aware that it might be challenging, but Francine was a person who occasionally gave me the creeps when I thought,” I ca n’t do it, I’m going to have to stop.” However, when the draft Dobbs decision was revealed, I felt compelled to complete this also though I owe money and it would be insane to rush to the finish line. I did believe that I would be able to pay off my debt when the movie Sundance premiered.” Ok, we’ll find a home. That, however, did not occur.
Is this something that you think we should be anticipating as one of the following fronts in the fight for abortion rights in light of these attempts to restrict information about medication abortion?
Coeytaux: We’re dealing with it; it’s certainly something we anticipate. Many of the Plan C resources are being invested in modern defense to prevent cancellations, allowing us to keep running Google ads, maintaining the functionality of our website, and preventing the cancellation of all other resources. The providers who are attempting to offer are experiencing cancellations of their payment platforms.
Droz Tragos: Despite the fact that we were the filmmaking team and tried to inform people that the movie was happening, Meta rejected our advertisements because they used the word “abortion,” so we had to find a social disclaimer. You can get exhausted from the time, money, and effort required to do that kind of thing, which it does. The people who are doing this work find it very, very difficult to continue doing it, and they are, but it’s certainly simple.
Francine, I am aware that you have spent a lot of time trying to correct false information. What do you believe to be the most pervasive myth regarding medication abortion?
Coeytaux: It’s more of a failure to embrace medication abortion than it is merely based on myth. The information that you can safely receive mailed medications is ultimately spreading, and it is protected to do so, but it still surprises me how few reproductive justice organizations and abortion funds will also inform clients that one of the options is to visit the Plan C website and learn that there is this model of care in place. They do n’t even divulge that much data. Some of them are actually unsure whether to share it, while others are aware of it and have been warned not to do so because doing so could result in aiding and abetting.
We really, really believe that if we can take advantage of this time, it will be something that wo n’t be able to be put back in the bottle, as you stated in Covid’s movie. Did Covid have the long-term effects you had hoped for, looking backwards?
Coeytaux: For medication abortion in particular, one of the reasons it wo n’t ever be put back in the bottle is that anyone who has heard of someone who had an abortion this way or has had one themselves has experienced that is shared.
These providers, who are the ones shipping to all states—including to states where that is currently the only option—are doubling the number of people they are seeing each month and are on the verge of going bankrupt due to the rapid and exponential growth in that number. If we do n’t take steps to make it simpler for them, it isnt sustainable.
Mailing the pills to patients is discussed as a form of legal disobedience by some of the activists and providers in the movie. What do we know about how much this is, or is n’t, being used as a tool in the fight for abortion access? We overheard some related discussion after the Dobbs decision, when dozens of elected prosecutors said they would refuse to prosecute abortion cases.
Coeytaux: The Right attempted to use” conscientious objection” as the justification for why pharmacists wo n’t provide you with access to emergency contraception, so we’ve been trying to coin the phrase. Honest provision is what these providers claim to be doing. And I’d like to add that they claim that their current situation forces them to choose between wanting to be valid, following the law, and being faithful while also being called to serve as a doctor by virtue of their vow. Therefore, when they receive a request for assistance from someone who needs it and are told,” You’re going to break the law if you help this patient,” they are torn between the two options:” Do I follow the legality, or do I uphold my oath to assist?” It’s a quite unpleasant and challenging place to be.
Francine, I am aware that you participated in some of the advocacy that helped the FDA approve emergency contraception and eventually make it accessible over-the-counter. How does the current battle to increase access to abortion medications compare to that battle?
Coeytaux: Sadly, they are very similar, and the similarity even depends on how long the fight lasts. We worked on something for decades that we presently hardly ever consider. The other similarity is that in order to get where we want, we must fight it at every level, including the social, financial, equity, medical, and FDA levels.
The demedicalization is the various significant similarity. It’s altering the idea that decision-making autonomy is not in the hands of the pharmacist, the doctor, or the cashier behind the counter; rather, it should be the person who needs it making the choice to use it and gaining access to it without having to go through any red flags.
If mifepristone is still widely available, the Supreme Court might decide quickly. If the court were to deny access, what role do you think Plan C would play both now and in the future?
Coeytaux: The Supreme Court’s worst course of action was to declare,” Okay, we agree with you, the FDA erred when they approved mifepristone.” FDA, go up and make a change. Without a doubt, it would be terrible for that to occur because it will re-stigmatize and sow confusion. However, it cannot be stopped because if the Supreme Court rules against these pills, doctors can prescribe them and they will simply need to be sold under a different name. What will therefore happen? Instead of getting the pills through the two manufacturers who have received FDA approval, they’ll simply force everyone to purchase them online. It wo n’t obstruct access.
Note from the editor: A worker for Plan C is also a member of the Mother Jones board. When Tracy Droz Tragos began filming Plan C in 2019, her fresh documentary about a network of activists and health professionals assisting Americans in obtaining abortion pills—which are approved by the FDA but restricted in some states—she was aware that some viewers might find it to be an emotive subject. She did n’t anticipate having to fight to, though.
When Tracy Droz Tragos began filming Plan C in 2019, her new documentary about the network of activists and doctors who help Americans access abortion pills, which are approved by FDA but restricted in certain states, she knew that some people would find it a sensitive subject. She didn’t anticipate that she would have to fight for her rights.
Photographs provided by Tracy Droz Tragos, in courtesy of Mother Jones. In 2019, when Tracy Droz Tragos initiated production of Plan C, her documentary focused on a community of activists and healthcare professionals assisting Americans in getting abortion pills (which are authorized by the FDA however, are limited in several states), she expected that a few people might feel it was a delicate topic. Droz Tragos did not foresee needing to struggle to secure a place for the documentary she made. Being unsure of whether or not it would be accepted was comparable with the difficulties many of the activists in the film were facing. “Releasing the movie was difficult,” she revealed during a virtual chat this week. She funded the piece of work independently, with her own debt reaching up to $250,000. Once the project was finished, the biggest streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu, and Max chose not to adopt it, as Droz Tragos told me. “Many people had the view that it was too politically charged,” she continued. Representatives of Netflix, Hulu, and Max were not available to comment to Mother Jones about why they chose not to take on the documentary; however, one of Droz Tragos’s preceding films, “Abortion: Stories Women Tell,” is shown on Max. Plan C is a campaign dedicated to facilitating access to abortion pills for pregnant persons, connecting them with providers to attain such medications. Roughly half of all abortion procedures nationwide are conducted via a medication abortion process, according to the Guttmacher Institute. This typically involves two pills: mifepristone (which hinders the hormonal impetus for pregnancy) and misoprostol (which induces contractions to terminate the pregnancy). Recently, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a federal judge waived regulations requiring individuals to obtain abortion pills from a pharmacy or doctor’s office and instead allowed them to be delivered via mail, thus significantly increasing accessibility.
