Unplanned and Person-Oriented Pro-Life Ministry (Spoilers)

On Sunday, I saw the movie Unplanned, which is based on the true story of Abby Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood clinic director turned pro-life activist. The issues surrounding the release of the film are interesting in themselves, such as the first R-rating for a film made by Pure Flix (God’s Not Dead, God’s Not Dead 2). You may not have seen any TV advertising for it because every major network except Fox News refused to show it, saying that the subject matter was “sensitive."  Furthermore, on the day the film came out, the Twitter account for the movie was suspended until people pointed it out to Twitter. Most surprising of all, with traditional advertising and screens to show it severely limited, the film still managed to pull in $6.3 million at the box office, more than double what was initially projected. Now the movie has been extended to several hundred more theaters across the country for a longer duration.

            Although I knew ahead of time that the film would be depicting a pro-life story and message, I must confess that I had some reservations and thought the film would be hokey, contrived and triumphalist. This may sound strange, but I am often hesitant to see explicitly contemporary Christian movies because I have generally seen those characteristics pop up in some way. However, I was pleasantly surprised that Unplanned came across as real with the complexities of human life and the struggle of moral enlightenment. Since it was based on a true story, maybe it was easier for those things to naturally manifest themselves. Furthermore, I think the film did an excellent job of showing what pro-life ministry should be: person-oriented, compassionate, patient and faithful. Here are some highlights and lessons from the film:


1) It accurately portrays the procedure of a first trimester abortion without sensationalizing it. Abby’s breakthrough moment occurred through assisting with an ultrasound guided abortion, and this is the procedure shown in the first scene. When we speak about abortion (if we do at all), we often use euphemisms to mask the reality because we do not want to look at it head on. Pictures, videos and film help us cut through our verbal gymnastics so we can soberly acknowledge the evil of the act for all parties involved.


2) “Fire and brimstone pro-lifers” are shown to be not only ineffective but ultimately lacking in charity. When Abby first volunteers to escort girls from their cars to Planned Parenthood’s doors, she and the girls are accosted by people calling them “baby killers” and flashing signs of post-abortive fetuses. One man, holding a Bible in his hand, yells an incredibly nasty insult to one of the scared girls going into the clinic. The comment was so bad and mean-spirited that this man was my second least favorite person in the film, only following Abby’s boss at Planned Parenthood. Although it sounds strange to say, the actions of this group of supposedly pro-life people reminded me of the way Satan uses words to accuse and condemn. The Evil One tells us something about ourselves that is partially true, but then he uses that to accuse us and keep us in bondage and condemnation. The truth that comes from God ultimately sets us free to live as His children.


3) Peaceful pro-lifers (represented by the Coalition for Life, which later became 40 Days for Life) show genuine love and concern for Abby as a person. Although they are ultimately interested in her conversion (as we should be for all people as an act of love), they express a genuine interest in her and are friendly toward her. A particularly telling scene is when Abby is visibly pregnant with her daughter, and Shawn Carney and his wife Marilisa congratulate her, and they mean it. They do not use the opportunity to shame her for bearing a child when she has helped encourage other women to abort. Rather, they smile and laugh with her, and it is ultimately this genuine kindness that convinces Abby to turn to the Coalition for Life for help when she wants to leave the abortion industry.


4) The Planned Parenthood clinic workers are presented as people who truly believe themselves to be helping women and doing the right thing, even though in reality they are not acting in accord with objective truth. They are not presented as monstrous people who relish the opportunity to destroy unborn life but as people who are operating under the assumption that they are doing good. I think this is accurate to reality and could be expanded in general to those who hold pro-choice positions. As St. Paul reminds us, "our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens" (Ephesians 6:12). The fight for defending life is not a fight between pro-life heroes and pro-choice monsters but rather sinners helping other sinners embrace the truth about the human person that sets us all free.


5) The women coming to Planned Parenthood (in the film, mostly younger women) are portrayed as scared, nervous, usually agonizing over the decision and most often coerced into the decision by another. In other words, the women coming are victims themselves, who need to be loved and cared for just as much as their unborn children.


6) Abby’s husband Doug is one of the most compelling characters in the film, and he represents in a marked way God’s love for sinful humanity. Doug knows that Abby works for Planned Parenthood before marrying her, and he makes it clear while dating and throughout their marriage that he believes abortion is wrong. Ultimately, he hopes Abby will leave the profession, but he does not harp on her all the time about it. Yet, despite disagreeing with her strongly on this, he chooses to marry her and shows himself to be a loving husband and father. Some might say, “How could he marry and love her, when he knew she was participating in an intrinsic evil?” Well, to that I would simply say that this is analogous to the way God loves us. St. Paul writes that “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8), and Christ espouses Himself to us through the Church. As Blaise Pascal wrote, “The heart has its reasons that reason knows not.”


7) The question of abortion’s legitimacy is not shown to be a simple religious vs. secular problem. Abby, along with several of her coworkers, go to church. The real issue is the extent to which one’s conscience is formed in accord with objective moral truths. In that sense, abortion and other life issues are our collective problems for which we must all assume responsibility. It's not just the problem of a secular culture but something for which we all must be constantly converted.


Considering these positive characteristics, I would like to offer one caveat. Abby’s boss Cheryl, a Planned Parenthood director at the corporate office, is depicted as cold, manipulative, conniving and essentially concerned about expanding abortions for increased profits. Some film critics who do not sympathize with the general aim of the movie have said that this character harkens to a Cruella Deville or Evil Witch. I agree that this character seems a bit one-dimensional, and I think it would have been helpful to know more about her background to be able to sympathize with her more. At the same time, I have not read Unplanned, so this presentation may be accurate to Abby’s experience of this woman. Unlike the film critics, I think it is very possible for a bigwig at an organization that not only provides an intrinsically evil act but profits on them to become vicious (full of vice) in a deeply disturbing way.


If you have not yet seen Unplanned, I highly recommend that you do so and that you tell other people about it. It’s a great conversation starter for an otherwise seemingly unapproachable topic. Finally, it is a story of redemption that shows us that no matter what we have done, God is always ready to embrace us with His infinite mercy.