MISO

Cat is pregnant and doesn’t want to be. Since support is scarce and options are limited, she decides to enlist the help of Sophie - a local doula who aids people as they take matters into their own hands. With Sophie’s help, Cat manages her at-home abortion, and comes into a deeper sense of personal power in the process.

MISO takes a rare look at self-managed medical abortion. Made, from start to finish, by an intersectional, all-women and non-binary cast, crew, and creative team, MISO picks up where most stories around reproductive rights leave off –the abortion itself. By bypassing Cat’s choice and focusing on her journey, the film humanizes the process of abortion and honors the decision Cat makes for herself, while highlighting, through Sophie, the myriad ways women and people with uteruses show up for each other.

The MISO team believes strongly in reproductive justice and hope that this film provides education around how birthing people can safely access medical abortion. As the conversation regarding reproductive rights becomes increasingly complicated in the United States, we believe that stories such as MISO can show that regardless of circumstance - all birthing people deserve access to resources such as safe medical abortion, and making safe decisions about their bodies is a fundamental human right.

MISO isn’t a story of making a choice. MISO isn’t a study in regret and indecision.  It’s not a story of heartbreak.  Of a relationship gone wrong.  

MISO is an unapologetic abortion story. 

When writing MISO,  I didn’t want to explore the “ifs” and “whys” of an abortion.  I wanted to tell a story of two women coming together to support each other over the course of a medical abortion.  In essence, I wanted to show a woman living her choice.

I’ve always been fascinated by the power of friendship and connection; how shared physical experience can inexplicably unite total strangers in deeply powerful ways. Much like Chicago’s Jane Collective of the 60s and 70s, today, people all across the world are helping each other navigate abortion outside of the medical system, both out of personal preference and necessity.  I was interested in digging into what it means to show up for another person in moments of intensity, pain, catharsis, and ultimately, freedom.

MISO humanizes abortion and honors the decision Cat makes for herself, while highlighting, through Sophie, what it means to share in another person’s experience - without judgment, question, or hesitation.