Unplanned is a 2019 American drama film written and directed by Cary Solomon and Chuck Konzelman. It is based on the disputed 2011 memoir Unplanned by anti-abortion activist Abby Johnson. The film stars Ashley Bratcher as Johnson, following her life as a clinic director for Planned Parenthood and her subsequent transition to anti-abortion activism.
The film was released to US theaters by evangelical Christian studio Pure Flix on March 29, 2019. The working title was Redeemed, and details of its subject were kept from the public in order to minimize protests by abortion rights advocates. My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell served as an executive producer and appears in the film in a cameo role. Some TV channels refused to air ads for the film due to its subject matter.
The film grossed $21 million worldwide on a $6 million budget. The accuracy of the film's portrayal of abortion and of Planned Parenthood have been severely criticized by doctors and advocates for Planned Parenthood, with several commentators describing it as political propaganda.
Plot The plot closely follows the account found in Abby Johnson's memoir, Unplanned.Lauren Cavalea and Chris Francescani, 'Unplanned' tells the story of the one[sic] of the youngest Planned Parenthood employees to become a clinic director ... and the event that she says changed everything, abcnews.go.com, USA, March 28, 2019 The film opens with a depiction of Johnson's home life with her husband, Doug, and daughter, Grace. In voice-over, Abby Johnson says she was tricked into participating with Planned Parenthood and the scene shifts to a time in 2009 when she claims she was asked to assist in an ultrasound-guided suction aspiration abortion at thirteen weeks gestation. During the procedure, Abby seems to witness the fetus showing distress as it is aborted. The scene ends with Abby leaving in tears. Johnson then describes, in voice over, that her story started her junior year at Texas A&M. The scene is depicted in flashback of a Planned Parenthood booth at a career fair. Johnson agrees to volunteer after the representative in the booth says to her that their ultimate goal was to reduce the number of abortions. As a clinic escort, she meets director Cheryl and witnesses anti-abortion protesters being verbally confrontational towards the women going in. One protester, Marilisa, is depicted as being kinder to women than the other protestors and says that those from her organization, "Coalition for Life", are "not here to hurt them or condemn them".
A flashback within a flashback then happens to when Abby had her two abortions, the first as a college student and the second after she marries then divorces. During the second abortion, for $400, she is given mifepristone at the clinic and is told there will be "a little bleeding", but the experience is depicted as being excruciatingly painful, over twelve hours and then followed up with "eight weeks of blood clots and excruciating cramps" causing her to fear for her life.
The film then cuts back to Abby's continuing work at the clinic, and she recounts in voice-over that it became "my career, despite the disapproval of virtually everyone in my life". The film flashes forward to her second marriage to Doug, a man who proclaims love while, like her parents, disapproving of her career on religious and moral grounds. Abby describes starting her life with Doug and attending a church with him that is decidedly opposed to abortion even while she continues to work at Planned Parenthood.
Abby becomes pregnant by Doug and, feeling secure in her life and marriage, chooses to carry the pregnancy. A scene is depicted of a botched abortion taking place at the clinic where Abby is told not to call an ambulance because of the way it would "look". Afterward, the staff throws Abby a baby shower. Abby gives birth to Grace and is promoted to director when Cheryl is transferred to Houston. Before Hurricane Ike strikes, Abby coordinates all of the abortions to happen beforehand, anticipating that it will not be possible to perform the procedures for a while after the hurricane. At a company meeting led by Cheryl and attended by clinic directors, Abby wins Employee of the Year. Cheryl then instructs the directors to double their abortion numbers. Abby is scolded for objecting to this by Cheryl, who explains that Planned Parenthood makes its money off of abortions the same way that fast food restaurants make money off of fries and soda, and says that "non-profit is a tax status, not a business model". Abby vents her frustrations to Doug, who later takes her out to dinner to help her relax. They leave the restaurant when they learn that abortion provider George Tiller has been murdered, and they decide to spend the night with Grace at Abby's parents' house for their safety. Abby is eventually formally reprimanded for insubordination after which the first few moments of the film are repeated just prior to Abby's participation in the procedure.
Abby is then depicted going to the office of 40 Days for Life, run by Marilisa and her husband, Shawn, and tearfully telling them that she cannot stay at her job after what she has seen. They offer to help her find employment. Abby formally resigns from Planned Parenthood and begins to help with the 40 Days for Life campaign, to the point of being on the other side of the clinic fence encouraging women not to go through with their abortions. Planned Parenthood sues Abby for leaking confidential information about their operations, and Shawn convinces his laid-back lawyer friend Jeff to defend her. On the day of the trial, Jeff proves Abby is innocent in court.
In 2013, the clinic Abby worked at closes, and she organizes a celebration at the abandoned building in which she expresses regret for performing abortions as well as having two. The closing captions say that Abby continues to work with the ministry "And Then There Were None", helping other abortion clinic workers leave and find employment elsewhere.
Accuracy of portrayal Several outlets—including Variety, The Globe and Mail, The Guardian, and the Toronto Sun—described the film as "propaganda".
The New York Times reported on an evaluation of the film's first scene:
Villavicencio explained to the HuffPost that most abortions last three to ten minutes and are "well tolerated".
The film has been criticized for uncritically portraying events as Johnson claims they occurred in spite of a variety of journalists casting doubt on the veracity of her account.Sorting Fact From Fiction in the Story of Pro-life Celebrity Abby Johnson. Texas Monthly, April 16, 2019 Johnson stated that the patient whose abortion led to her decision to leave Planned Parenthood was a black woman. Based on reporting by Texas Monthly (which relied on Planned Parenthood clinic records), only one patient served by Johnson's then-employer on September 26, 2009, was black, and she was in the sixth week—not the 13th week—of her pregnancy.
The film depicts Planned Parenthood as promoting abortion for the sake of profit. A character, Cheryl (Robia Scott), claims that Planned Parenthood makes its money off of abortions the way that fast food restaurants make money by selling French fries and soda.
Anna North of Vox criticized the film for depicting abortion as very dangerous, noting that within the United States, it is significantly safer than childbirth.
Cast
Production
In September 2018, it was announced that principal photography on a new Pure Flix film with a working title of Redeemed had been completed. Out of fear for potential protests due to the subject matter, everyone involved with the project signed a confidentiality agreement, whereby they agreed not to engage in social media posts about the film nor any press interaction. Additionally, the film was secretly shot in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
Based on Johnson's memoir of the same name, Unplanned was produced on a $6 million budget. Mike Lindell, founder and owner of My Pillow, was a major backer of the film, contributing $1 million to production and having a cameo.
Directors Chuck Konzelman and Cary Solomon sent a draft of their script to Johnson for review. Upon reading, Johnson reacted, "I read the script. And in the first 15 pages, I hated me. Then I got to the end of the script, and I loved it. It was me!" During casting, producers warned potential cast members that their participation in the film might result in their not getting future roles in the film industry due to the film's subject matter. Unlike the upcoming Roe v. Wade – which had some crew who quit once they learned of the film's subject matter – Unplanned did not suffer from the same fate since those involved knew about the film's focus when hired.
Music labels denied the rights to use such songs as The Fray's "How to Save a Life", "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" by Cyndi Lauper, One Direction's "Story of My Life", Oingo Boingo's "Dead Man's Party" and "The Guardian Suite" by Trevor Rabin. Christian singer Matthew West wrote a song for the film called "Unplanned", posting its music video a week before the film's release.
MPAA rating Unplanned was given an R rating (the first for any Pure Flix film) by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), with the rating descriptor being "for some disturbing/bloody images", citing the graphic abortion-related scenes as the reason for the rating, and notified the film's producers that it would remain R-rated unless those scenes were removed. The MPAA denied allegations that it had assigned the rating due to political bias. Pure Flix, which had been expecting a PG-13 rating, decided not to contest the MPAA's action due to concerns that such conflict could delay the film's release.
In response to the film's rating, the MPAA was sent a complaint signed by twenty-nine people uninvolved in the production of the film. The signers include former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, political commentator Glenn Beck, actor Kevin Sorbo, and Academy Award-winning film producers Gerald R. Molen and Gray Frederickson. Despite this, the MPAA did not revoke the rating, saying that "[t]he filmmakers did not make use of the rating appeal process."
Johnson subsequently wrote an open letter addressed to parents, stating that the film contained no nudity, sex or profanity. A second open letter, signed by the same twenty-nine people from the MPAA complaint, encouraged faith communities to ignore the rating and turn out for the film as they did for The Passion of the Christ, another religious movie that received controversy from the evangelical community for receiving an R rating for its graphic violent content.
Release
United States Unplanned was released in the United States on March 29, 2019. The film received a pre-screening on February 21, 2019, in lower Manhattan, and again on March 28, 2019, in Indiana, one day before its release date.
Many media outlets declined to air advertising for the film on account of the controversial subject matter and/or the film's R rating, including A&E Networks, Discovery, Inc., Hallmark Channel, NBCUniversal, and Christian radio network K-Love. Only Fox News (who also did editorial coverage of the production) and the Christian Broadcasting Network agreed to air ads.