Unhinged: Why Anti-Choice Filmmakers Should Flick Off
While working as a correspondent for a local newspaper, I got an e-mail a few years ago from a distressed school guidance counselor who said that students were flooding her office in search of — not course guides or study guides — but food. They had no food to eat at home, and were begging for a snack that would give them the energy to make it through another school day.
Other students, furthermore, didn’t even have a home to go to; they lived as homeless citizens who slept on people’s couches — if they were lucky. Others slept on park benches.
I suddenly felt a compelling, overwhelming need to help those young people. So in addition to writing a story that brought in donations to buy food for kids in need, I contacted a friend who ran a local charity. He promptly set up a feeding program that would supply on site meals for these same kids.
My name is Megan. I’m an activist journalist. I’m a humanitarian and a feminist. I’m also a proud pro-choice activist, and a supporter of Planned Parenthood.
In all my years as an activist journalist, I’ve never seen a so-called “pro life/pro child” group step forward and offer to contribute to, raise, or in any way support children in need. Now I’m sure that some individual contributors who subscribe to pro life an individual church groups help, but — as an organized movement— pro-lifers seem much more concerned with pouring their funds into another endeavor.
They’re making movies.
“Unplanned” is the story of Abby Johnson, a onetime Planned Parenthood director who now crusades vehemently against a woman’s right to choose. The movie is a Grand Guignol gorefest that tries to shock the audience with bloody images of procedures that don’t even appear legal or feasible.
Funny how the camera never ventures into other rooms of Planned Parenthood. Like the exam rooms, where patients have been known to receive life-saving cancer and STD diagnosis; indeed, in 2017, Planned Parenthood health centers provided more than 600,000 cancer screenings and preventive procedures. Like the counseling rooms, in which women are encouraged to explore all of their options before making the serious, life-impacting decision regarding their bodies and pregnancies. More than one woman has exited this room and decided not to abort. Or the educational rooms, in which women and couples receive vital birth control and family planning information, which helps prevent unwanted pregnancies in the first place.
And the camera certainly never journeys to a back-alley, illegal clinic in which desperate women put their lives on the line as coat hangers, knitting needles, and filthy surgical instruments are jabbed into their body parts.
The World Health Organization reports that, worldwide, 25 million unsafe abortions (45% of all abortions) occurred every year between 2010 and 2014. And each year, between 4.7% — 13.2% of maternal deaths can be attributed to unsafe abortion. Around 7 million women are admitted to hospitals every year in developing countries, as a result of unsafe abortion. The annual cost of treating major complications from unsafe abortion is estimated at US $553 million.
“Almost every abortion death and disability could be prevented through sexuality education, use of effective contraception, provision of safe, legal induced abortion, and timely care for complications,” reports WHO.
Unplanned was made with an estimated budget of 6 million dollars. The film credits 17 producers, 13 of which are male. The film was written and directed by two men: Cary Solomon and Chuck Konzelman. Seeing the pattern here, folks?
Just think of all the children and families that money could have fed, including what the Food Aid Foundation calls “the 795 million people in the world (that) do not have enough food to lead a healthy active life. That’s about one in nine people on earth,” and the “3.1 million children each year” who die because of poor nutrition.
Food Aid further reports that “66 million primary school-age children attend classes hungry across the developing world, with 23 million in Africa alone”.
“US $3.2 billion is needed per year to reach all 66 million hungry school-age children,” the website reports.
That 6 mill could have come in handy to reach that goal.
Furthermore, why aren’t these pro-child peeps rushing to the border, to ensure that no more immigrant babies are ripped screaming from their mothers’ arms? Why does supporting children seem to stop at birth?
Just another interesting factoid about me. I myself am the result of an unplanned pregnancy. I was born to a brilliant activist woman who was also a lifelong supporter of Planned Parenthood.
My mother, who passed away last year, had ample reason to be pro-choice. A child of the Depression, she saw first hand the effects of extreme poverty. She also lost a friend, herself a smart, very promising journalist, to an illegal abortion.
When faced with an unexpected pregnancy at age 41, she herself opted not to abort. Why? She had the knowledge and the resources needed to welcome an unplanned child into the world. And she and my father devoted every day of their lives to making me feel wanted, valued, and important.
My mother’s name was Frances. She was a lifelong Planned Parenthood supporter. And she is the best mom in the world.
Let’s donate to and support Planned Parenthood and The Food Aid Foundation.
Editor’s Notes:
- It should be noted that Planned Parenthood in contrast to so-called crisis pregnancy centers offer all options openly and honestly for people who use their services. John Oliver has a great segment on how state money has been funneled into the crisis pregnancy centers that only offer sometimes coercive pro-life solutions for patients.
- If you would like to hear specific commentary/reviews of the film, Unplanned, then you will find some take-downs via God Awful Movies and, also, Midnight Screenings from The Cinema Snob, Brad Jones. While funny and insightful, these reviews do contain cursing so are NSFW.
