PLAN C

*This review originally appeared on AWFJ.org*

The modern-day version of The Janes are revolutionaries protecting people who seek abortion access in SXSW 2023 documentary PLAN C. Elisa Wells and Francine Coeytaux are co-founders and the creator of the organization Plan C. “They are not providers. They share information.” They and their team of doctors and regular women across the globe do everything they can to provide the healthcare that is being stripped away by the minute.

The film begins in 2019 and progresses into 2023. As the laws change and public tensions rise, tactics must shift in kind. In-person meetings turn into zoom calls. When the 6-week abortion ban took effect in Texas on September 1st, 2021, Francine got extra creative, making QR code stickers that led to the site and paying for a brightly lit digital advertisement truck. Private mailboxes across state lines became a lifetime. Accessing the abortion pill once again becomes a clandestine operation. Plan C is careful to protect its volunteers and those they serve. It is all hands on deck, lawyers on call, with states battling between righteous morality and freedom.

Some women hide their faces for safety. Frankly, I don’t blame them. The hysteria from the right has become a full-blown Handmaid’s Tale situation. The film features audio from users of Plan C. Each woman explained her intensely personal motives. The stigma attached to abortion can be soul-destroying. Family planning and body autonomy should not be an issue! PLAN C is more important than ever. It is required viewing for champions of basic human rights. You’ll never stop abortions, no matter what laws you pass. Pre-Roe came “The Janes.” Post-Roe, Francine, Eisa, and innumerable women take up their mantle. SXSW 2023 audiences get a peek behind the curtain of the women fighting the good fight, the ones you won’t regularly see in the spotlight.