OFFICIAL SELECTION - Sundance Film Festival | OFFICIAL SELECTION - SXSW Film & TV Festival | OFFICIAL SELECTION - Cleveland International Film Festival | OFFICIAL SELECTION - Martha's Vineyard Film Festival | VIDEO LIBRARIAN BEST DOCUMENTARIES OF 2023
Abortion Rights • Human Rights • Bodily Autonomy • Movement Building • Reproductive Rights, Freedom & Justice • Medical Freedom • State vs. Federal Law • Gender Affirming CareDate of Completion: 2023 | Run Time: 94 & 60 minutes | Language: English | Captions: Yes | Includes: Transcript & Study Guide (Available Upon Purchase) | Director: Tracy Tragos | Producer(s): Tracy Tragos, Beth Kearsley & Jess Jacobs
PLAN C documents the work of determined women in the United States expanding access to medication abortion by any means necessary. The abortion pill is a combination of two medications, RU486 or “Mifepristone,” used in conjunction with Misoprostol, to safely and effectively end a pregnancy up to 12 weeks according to the World Health Organization. It has been approved by the FDA since 2000 and yet few Americans have heard of it.
Meet FRANCINE COEYTAUX. Francine has been working in public health for decades. She successfully fought for Plan B to be available over the counter. She explains that few people know about the abortion pill because access has been so severely, and unnecessarily, restricted. In 2014, Francine and her partners founded the organization they call Plan C, with the goal of spreading the word about this alternative to in-clinic abortion.
When the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision was leaked in May 2022, everyone planned for what now seemed inevitable: Roe would be overturned, and abortion would be outlawed in at least nineteen states. An anonymous distributor in the U.S. is enlisted to send pills to patients in red states. Pills were and continue to be shipped to states where telemedicine has become illegal, and abortion is criminalized. But Plan C’s message is that no matter where you live, you can still access pills by mail: either in a matter of days, or weeks, if ordering from overseas providers.
Distribution is risky business in the U.S: a direct action that may have dire consequences for those involved. The United States is more divided today than ever about many things, including abortion. As blue states work to protect and expand access, red state politicians work to criminalize it. What is the responsibility of those in blue states to support their red state neighbors – and what are the risks? Who gets criminalized and who stays safe? Who will support pregnant people and their providers despite the risk and who is left to fend for themselves? Who will die, and who will live, and who will choose?
Video Librarian | J. Zimmerman
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ "This documentary is incredibly brave and features dozens of equally courageous women who share their experiences both with providing care and receiving care even though state governments have placed a death sentence on such activities in some of these states. Highly Recommended."
The Hollywood Reporter
“Moving and urgent.”
The Daily Beast
“Plan C, the Powerful Film That Rallied Abortion Activists at Sundance.”
Flickering Myth
“At once a depressing portrait of modern America and a testament to the courage of abortion activists, Plan C is a vital, must-see documentary."
Unseen Films
“I was rocked and it will rock your world too. Destined to be talked about, argued about and litigated for years PLAN C is a must see especially if you have any women you love in your life.”
The Utah Review
“Amid fear and turbulence of dire threats to abortion, reproductive rights, PLAN C documentary is testament of hope, resilience...The profound sense of humanity permeating through the footage is gripping and heart touching but the advocates’ pragmatic and resolute mindset keeps PLAN C from descending into a sense of hopelessness and instead becomes a statement of resilience.”
Variety
"How ‘Plan C’ Director Tracy Droz Tragos Plans to Make Noise About Abortion Access at Sundance Film Festival"
Cosmopolitan
"This Documentary About the Fight for Abortion Information and Access Is One of the Best Movies of the Year"
Jezebel
"Plan C’ Documentarian Kept Her Cameras Rolling As Abortion Access Dried Up"
Gulf Islands Driftwood
Film festival 2024 features voices of dissent
Director & Producer of PLAN C
Tracy’s work includes Abortion: Stories Women Tell, the HBO documentary telling intimate stories of unplanned pregnancies, resilience and personal tragedy; Smartest Kids in the World, a documentary about the crisis in U.S. high school education, and Be Good, Smile Pretty, an Emmy Award-winning documentary about the grief and healing of survivors of the Vietnam War. With Rich Hill, Tracy embedded in the homes of low-income families in rural Missouri to give voice to the at-risk teenagers there. Among other awards, Rich Hill won the Grand Jury Prize for U.S. Documentary at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. Since then, Tracy has continued filming with these Missouri families with a focus on Sarah, whom Tracy met in 2012, who became pregnant at age 15 – and is now a mother of three.
With PLAN C, Tracy traveled America to cover the stories of a grassroots network fighting to expand access to abortion pills across the United States keeping hope alive during a global pandemic and the fall of Roe v. Wade - as well as the stories of people seeking their care.