The question of why hangs over Plan C, a new documentary on efforts to expand access to medication abortion in the United States. Why seek a medication abortion? Because it’s safe, says one woman. (The two-pill combination of mifepristone and misoprostol, both certified by the FDA, are approved for the termination of pregnancy in the first trimester in 90 countries, although its use is severely restricted in the US.) Because of the comfort and safety of being in one’s own home, says another in a montage of phone calls seeking medication abortion by mail. Because the fear of facing screaming protesters at clinics, because her family’s military doctor refused to tie her tubes at 24, because “I felt more comfortable doing this at my own pace, at my own time”.
Pregnant people seeking abortion face a gauntlet of hurdles in the US, from cost to appointment scarcity to, depending on where one lives, the threat of prosecution. So, too, do providers, who because of the chaotic, cruel and patchwork reproductive healthcare landscape in the US, are forced to take on extra risk or extra work (or both) to provide basic reproductive healthcare. Still, “I feel called to do this. There’s not really a why,” says Dr K (her full name, like many others, is withheld for protection), one of the many providers featured in Plan C who mail abortion medication out of state. “It’s like, why do you pick up your kid when they’re crying? Is there a why? You just do it.”
