“Unplanned” is a movie full of surprises

OKLAHOMA CITY – Abby Johnson fled the room in shock, shaken and disgusted by the procedure she’d just witnessed; yet a procedure she had profited from both professionally and financially for most of eight years.
 
Abortion.
 
Actress Ashley Bratcher, playing the part of Johnson, now a pro-life champion, portrayed the scene stunningly in the film “Unplanned,” set for wide release in theaters March 29, but screened recently for local audiences.
 
It’s the defining scene – of Johnson’s story, and the story against abortion – in a movie that sets up as a game-changer for the pro-life cause.
 
The goal of “Unplanned” is simple: to educate. While pro-abortion arguments have dominated media coverage dating back to the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, the pro-life narrative rarely has been afforded equal time, even as science and technology has improved to reveal more and more about life in the womb; mainly that it is life, unique human life in the form of a developing baby.
 
“Unplanned,” which features Brooks Ryan, a Poteau native, playing the role of Johnson’s husband, peels back the curtain on Johnson’s conversion experience as a center director for Planned Parenthood. And, the timing couldn’t be more right, with New York, Virginia, Illinois and other states pressing even more aggressive pro-abortion laws, up to and even through the moment of birth.
 
“God’s hand is all over it,” said Bratcher, whose experience with the film led to deeply personal revelations, including one from her mother.
 
The actress was on the set of the movie, which was shot almost exclusively in Stillwater, when she took a call from her mother, who’d had an abortion at the age of 19. Bratcher readied to explain her new acting role to her mom, proceeding with love and care.
 
“When I got ready to tell my mother about Abby’s testimony and her story, I was really careful about how I was going to approach it,” Bratcher said. “I wanted to make sure I was very gentle with her and make sure she knew that I didn’t love her any less, or that I judged her in any way.
 
“I expected her to be emotional. And, she was. What happened next, I could have never anticipated. She broke down on the phone, just sobbing. She said, ‘Ashley, I need to tell you something.’ She said, ‘You never knew this, but I was actually at the (abortion) clinic, they called my name and I had gone back to be examined by a very pregnant nurse. And, I was on the table, when I got up and decided I couldn’t go through with it. I had intended to abort you. And, I got up and walked out.’
 
“It just further proves to me that God plans our steps for us, from conception.”
 
Bratcher connects her conception, to her mother’s decision, to her starring in this movie as beyond coincidence.
 
“If someone wants to calculate the statistics and odds of how that could have happened, let me know,” she said. “To me, it’s just so clear and so evident that God loves us and cares for us so personally, and cares for this project, because there’s nothing about this project that is unplanned.
 
Johnson’s story, first documented in her book “unPlanned,” published in 2014, took a deliberate pace to gain adaptation as a film. The book was first suggested for movie consideration to producers Chuck Konzelman and Cary Solomon.
 
Both men immediately liked the book, but decided it wasn’t time. After initial disappointment, Konzelman and Solomon recognized that the message wasn’t a “no,” but simply “not now.” They moved on to other projects, including “God’s Not Dead,” before returning to prayer about moving ahead with “Unplanned.”
 
Eventually, the men felt God saying, “Go.” And, here comes the movie, with abortion firmly in the news and potentially setting up as the major talking point in the 2020 presidential election.
 
“We couldn’t have foreseen the rapid developments that are suddenly coming to a head,” Konzelman told Faithwire.com, “but we serve a God who could, and did.”
 
The film, like the book, details Johnson’s conversion, leading her from being Planned Parenthood’s youngest center director to a staunch pro-life advocate.
 
She is the founder of And Then There Were None, a ministry designed to assist abortion facility workers, like Johnson, seeking a way out. To date, the ministry has helped more than 500 workers leave the industry. The goal of the ministry is tied to the name, working toward a time when there are none left on the job of abortion.
 
The Archdiocese of Oklahoma City played a major role in the screening of “Unplanned” before a crowd of more than 800 at Rose State College, on Rose Day. That event was the second screening of the film that day, following a private event at the state Capitol, attended by Archbishop Coakley.
 
“The cause for life is one we all can stand together in fighting for,” Archbishop Coakley said. “The movie is powerful and has great potential to change one’s thinking about the value of life in the womb. As missionary disciples, we must be deeply committed to protecting and defending the most fundamental right of humankind, the right to life of every human being, from the beginning of life to natural death.”