Right to Privacy

My favorite thing about Right to Privacy is the moment the question becomes “Do your actions ever mean you forfeit your right to privacy?”

This film charts new territory as it addresses abortion providers’ rights. Does the nature of their work mean they don’t deserve that right if you don’t agree with what they do?

Does the patient, and her mother, retain their rights to privacy, even though the hypocrisy of their appearance inside the clinic begs to have it tossed aside? Dr. Jen has endured relentless stress from this woman’s actions, trying to keep her head down and just do the work she’s passionate about: women’s healthcare. Now she has to find her center, and do the job she was trained to do, no matter the situation.

The producers and I all worked together to give balance to this story, to show the similarities between these two women: the drive they have to do the work they do, as well as their love for their daughters.

It was important to me to shine a light on the hypocrisy that either side can exhibit. For a regular protestor to suddenly show up to get an abortion for her daughter - well, that’s shockingly hypocritical, especially when you realize that’s the true story this was inspired by.

The flip side of the coin is Dr. Jen’s realization that her ardent belief that she respects all women might not actually include the woman she sees as her enemy.

The heart-wrenching ending where it’s young Grace whose life is caught in the fallout of her mother’s actions, brings home that the right-to-lifer’s fight to close abortion clinics can have negative repercussions well beyond anything they ever imagined.

It’s my sincere hope that this film inspires conversations about choice, and that the bottom line is that no matter what our beliefs, no good comes from trying to force one’s own way of thinking onto someone else.

Julie Herlocker
Director
Right to Privacy