Unplanned

Unplanned is a 2019 American drama film written and directed by Cary Solomon and Chuck Konzelman, based on the memoir Unplanned by Abby Johnson. The film stars Ashley Bratcher, Brooks Ryan and Robia Scott, and follows the life of Johnson as clinic director for Planned Parenthood and her subsequent conversion to anti-abortion activism.

The film was theatrically released in the United States by Pure Flix on March 29, 2019. The working title of the film was Redeemed, and details of its subject were kept from the public in order to minimize protests by abortion rights advocates. Most TV channels refused to air promotional material for the film because of the subject matter.

Plot
In 2001 in Texas, Abby Johnson sees a Planned Parenthood booth at a college career fair and agrees to volunteer after being told 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, agrees with Abby about this approach being uncharitable; her group instead prays and calmly talks with the women, directing them to resources to help them raise their child. Abby reveals to her that she has had an abortion; she reflects that it was as a college student with deadbeat boyfriend, Mark, who encouraged her to obtain one when she became pregnant.

Abby marries Mark, but divorces him a year later after he cheats on her. Two weeks later, she discovers that she is pregnant again and chooses to have a medical abortion at the clinic where she now volunteers. Abby is told it will "gently empty out her uterus", but the experience is painful, resulting in bleeding and eight weeks of cramping. In narration, Abby says that her anger turned from being directed at Planned Parenthood to being directed at herself. Abby continues to volunteer and becomes a public relations director and later counselor who answers questions from women about to have an abortion, and says she is very good at convincing them to go through with it. Abby marries Doug, who loves her, but does not approve of her career. They soon discover she is pregnant and Cheryl suggests she get an abortion, but Abby chooses to keep her child. Throughout these events, Abby continues to talk with Marilisa and her husband Shawn, despite their opposing views on abortion.

Cheryl shows Abby the room of "products of conception", which are the fetal remains after abortion, and tells Abby that she would like her to succeed her as director, which she agrees to do. As director, Abby's clinic becomes the best performing in the region, and she is awarded "Employee of the Year". During a company conference, she publicly voices her concerns towards a new directive to increase the number of abortions, especially medical abortions, because they are more profitable, for which she is formally reprimanded. Abby also looks at her own medical records from her previous medical abortion and sees the sonogram of her unborn child.

In 2009, Abby is called in to assist in an ultrasound-guided suction aspiration abortion at thirteen weeks gestation. She notes that she has never witnessed an abortion before, and she is concerned when she sees the fetus on the ultrasound, which is moving away from the suction tube. The doctor turns on the suction machine and Abby finds the process gruesome and disturbing. Upon seeing an empty womb, Abby leaves in tears.

Abby goes to the office of 40 Days for Life, run by Marilisa and Shawn, and tearfully tells them that she cannot stay in her job after what she has seen. They support Abby and offer to help her find employment. Abby formally resigns and begins to help with their campaign, even being on the other side of the clinic fence encouraging women not to go through with their abortions. Planned Parenthood sues Abby for allegedly leaking confidential information about their operations, and Shawn convinces his laid-back lawyer friend Jeff to defend them. While Planned Parenthood intimidates Abby into thinking they have a strong case, the judge quickly finds it meritless and rules in favor of Abby.

In 2013, when the Planned Parenthood clinic Abby worked at has closed, she organizes a pro-life event at the abandoned building in which she expresses regret for performing abortions as well as having two abortions. She ties two roses to the fence and leaves a private letter marked "To my children", before her husband and daughter join her and they walk off. 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.

Cast

 * Ashley Bratcher as Abby Johnson
 * Brooks Ryan as Doug
 * Robia Scott as Cheryl
 * Jared Lotz as Shawn
 * Emma Elle Roberts as Marilisa
 * Robin DeMarco as Kathleen
 * Robert Thomason as Mike
 * Tina Toner as Renee
 * Sarah Hernandez as Elena
 * Maura Corsini as Megan
 * Lezl Gonzales as Taylor
 * Kaiser Johnson as Jeff
 * Andee Grace Burton as Grace
 * Alexander Kane as Mark
 * Stacey Bradshaw as Karen

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 shot in secret in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

Based on Abby Johnson's memoir of the same name, Unplanned was produced on a budget of $6 million. Michael J. Lindell, founder and owner of My Pillow, was a major backer of the film, contributing $1 million dollars to the production. Lindell has a cameo in the film.

Directors Chuck Konzelman and Cary Solomon sent a draft of their script to Abby 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 with the film knew about the film's focus when they were hired.

Ashley Bratcher has related that following her acceptance of the role – and just prior to the movie's commencement of filming – she found out that her mother had had an abortion during her teens and almost had an abortion while she was pregnant with her. Bratcher's mother has a role as an extra in the film.

Several music labels denied the rights to use their music in the film. These included 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.

The factual basis of the memoir has been questioned, specifically her statements that "higher-up at Planned Parenthood encouraged her to increase abortions for financial reasons". Johnson also stated that the patient in question was a black woman. However, based on reporting by Texas Monthly, which relied on Planned Parenthood clinic records, only one patient from September 26, 2009 was black, and she was in the sixth week (not the 13th week) of her pregnancy.

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 MPAA, who cited a few graphic abortion-related scenes as the reason for the rating and notified the producers of the film that the film would remain R-rated unless those scenes were removed, but denied 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 may delay the film's release. However, regarding the MPAA's rating, co-directors Chuck Konzelman and Cary Solomon said that "[w]e consider the MPAA’s current standards to be deeply flawed, insofar as they allowed scenes of remarkably graphic sex, violence, degradation, murder and mayhem to have a PG-13 rating, whereas our film, highlighting the grave dangers of abortion in a straightforward manner, is considered dangerous for the American people to view[.]"

Ken Rather, Vice President of Distribution at Pure Flix, made a similar comment: "[a] 15 year-old-girl can get an abortion without her parent’s permission but she can’t see this movie without adult supervision? That’s sad."

Abby Johnson, however, acknowledged that the R rating may have been assigned in good faith: "We are pushing the boundaries of what has never been before on such a wide scale by showing America exactly what abortion is — and abortion is disturbing. It’s violent . . . . In my opinion, one of the most impactful films of our time is The Passion of the Christ. It was rated R. So I feel like Unplanned is in good company. An R rating from the MPAA isn’t going to slow this movie down. I believe people are ready for the truth."

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, explaining why the MPAA had assigned the R rating to the film and 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 R rating and turn out for the film as they did The Passion of the Christ.

Release
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 TV channels refused to show commercials 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, and NBCUniversal. Google also refused ads, and listed the film as "drama/propaganda" in search results for a period of time. Only Fox News, who gave the film $1 million in free advertising, and the Christian Broadcasting Network agreed to air ads. A popular Christian radio network, K-Love, also refused to air ads for the film because of the R rating.

During the film's opening weekend, its official Twitter account was suspended (reportedly because it was linked to another account that violated Twitter's code of conduct). However, it was soon reinstated, gaining thousands of additional followers within several hours, eventually exceeding the number of followers for Planned Parenthood. Twitter was then accused of dropping followers of the film's account from over 200,000 to approximately 16,000. Senator Josh Hawley accused Twitter of censoring conservative views, and in a letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, requested that an outside independent audit be made into Twitter's speech policies. Twitter responded and "said follower counts can often take up to 24 hours to stabilize following a suspension and that any issues with page follows should also be resolved shortly"; the next day, according to Newsweek, "the official account for the film appeared to confirm Twitter’s statement" in a tweet.

In some theaters, volunteers from 40 Days for Life wore shirts like those seen in the film and handed out pro-life materials to theater-goers.

Box office
In the United States, Unplanned was released alongside The Beach Bum and Dumbo and was projected to gross $3-5 million from 1,060 theaters its opening weekend. The film made $3 million on its first day, including $700,000 from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $6.4 million, exceeding box office projections and finishing 4th at box office, marking the second-best opening for a Pure Flix film behind God's Not Dead 2 ($7.6 million in 2016); the film played best in conservative-leaning states in the Midwest and South. Deadline Hollywood said the opening was "remarkable considering that the film was rated R [and was] boxed out from running TV spots on most major cable networks and Christian radio." It was reported that churches across the country had bought out entire screenings for the picture. 40 Days for life also hosted nearly 300 screenings. In its second weekend the film was added to 456 additional theaters (for a total of 1,516) and made $3.2 million. the movie had grossed more than $17.8 million.

Critical response
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 48% based on 21 reviews, and a weighted average of 5.37/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "A dramatic approach to a hot-button topic whose agenda is immediately clear, Unplanned will only reinforce the feelings of viewers on either side of the issue." At Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 14 out of 100, based on six critics, indicating "overwhelming dislike". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a rare "A+" grade, and those at PostTrak gave it an overall positive score of 80% and a 65% "definite recommend".

Writing for the National Catholic Reporter, Rose Pacatte said that "Unplanned is an important film, a designation that directors hate to hear. It is not entertaining (until the cheesy lawyer shows up) but tells an emotional story with wide-ranging implications." In a review for The Catholic World Report, Nick Olszyk stated that, "Unplanned is a testament to the truth, and the more people know about the abortion industry, the harder it is to obscure that truth." The Deseret News 's Josh Terry wrote that the film "...may not bridge the divide between the different sides of the abortion issue, but it will provide some food for thought for the undecideds", ultimately concluding that "Unplanned has room for praise and criticism."

In contrast, The Hollywood Reporter 's Frank Scheck criticized Unplanned as "proselytizing agitprop" comparable to a "basic cable television movie in its mediocre production values and subpar performances". Similarly, Owen Gleiberman of Variety said the film "isn't good drama but it's effective propaganda" and The A.V. Club 's Vadim Rizov stated that "[while Unplanned] has greater technical finesse than its foundational forebears...[,] there's not a single scene that speaks to characters with lives outside their streamlined narrative function; they're performers in a parable traced over a Chick tract, filmed with a bland competence at odds with the true perversity of the material".

Planned Parenthood reaction
Shortly before the film was released, the American division of Planned Parenthood issued a statement claiming that the arguments in it were false. Additionally, Planned Parenthood Ottawa opposed the film's first Canadian screening, held at Parliament Hill on April 11, 2019 with four Conservative Party members of parliament.