Haley Lu Richardson and Barbie Ferreira made a road trip comedy about abortion

By Marah Eakin | September 11, 2020 | 3:30pm

Film Features Haley Lu Richardson

Your browser does not support the video.

In Unpregnant, Haley Lu Richardson plays Veronica, a Brown-bound, Missouri-based high schooler who finds herself suddenly and unpleasantly pregnant. She decides she can’t tell her very Catholic mother about the problem at hand, so does some investigating, only to find out that the nearest place for a minor to get an abortion with their parent knowing is in New Mexico—nearly 900-some miles away. Enter Bailey, her ex-best friend played by Euphoria’s Barbie Ferreira. She’s got a car, and she’s up for an adventure. Together, the two road trip their way across the southern United States over the course of a weekend, running into all manner of problems—legal and extralegal—along the way.

Unpregnant is unapologetically pro-choice, making it an anomaly amongst movies that deal with characters faced with getting an abortion. We talked to Richardson, Ferreira, and director Rachel Lee Goldenberg about what they did to subvert that dominant paradigm, and why their film’s voyage is both a lighthearted, friendly romp and a searing judgement of the state of abortion access in the United States today.