On the screens of the American cinema on March 29 was a film that many call unprecedented for Hollywood. It`s the movie “Unplanned”, the plot of which is based on the true story of our contemporary – a resident of Texas named Abby Johnson.
Serious discussions have already erupted around this film in both the English-language press and the Russian-language press. This is understandable, because the film touches on the uncomfortable, for many, the topic of abortion. A topic that concerns a significant part of the world’s population. Kazakhstan, unfortunately, is not an exception, and even the opposite. According to statistics, every third woman in Kazakhstan has at least once terminated a pregnancy. One of the viewers of the English-speaking audience under the nickname “jonathanfairchild” writes in the comments to the film: “…This movie is good for anyone who is pro-choice. It will be uncomfortable for them to watch but good for them to see it”.
On the film’s website you can find many links to sources that affect the discussion of the film. On one of the links on this site you can go to the channel “Fox News”, which presented the testimony of Dr. Levatino, who has performed 12,000 abortions, including about a thousand abortions in the second trimester of pregnancy, but stopped his career after the death of his own 5-year-old daughter. Until that moment, he believed that abortion was a private matter for every woman. But when, after the death of his daughter, he returned to work, for the first time really looked at the mangled parts of the child’s body, which he extracted from its mother`s womb. And about this moment he says: “I did not see at that moment her wonderful right of choice, did not see how great a doctor I was, helping her solve problems, and did not even see the 8 thousand dollars that I just earned in 15 minutes, all I saw at that moment was someone’s son or daughter, and at that moment I was struck by the idea that in fact, figuratively speaking, this patient came to me and said: “Here’s $ 8,000, kill my son or my daughter.” To which I, without hesitation, resolutely answer: “of Course, I will do it, no problem.”
This is one of the testimonies that the person decided to give in the context of the appearance of this film. But there is also shocking testimony of the actress Ashley Brutcher, who played the main character in the film, who, after announcing to her parents that she had acted in such a film, knew for a fact that her mother, at the age of 19, had also gone to the clinic to have an abortion, being pregnant with Ashley at the time, but, as you know, changed her decision and did not have the abortion.
The film with a similar plot could not stay out of the attention of those who are not for life. It is possible that for this reason it was prohibited for children under 16 to see the film without the presence or permission of parents, despite the fact that there are no scenes of a pornographic nature, scenes of violence, or obscene language.
Undoubtedly, this fact upset the filmmakers. One of the directors of the film, according to gcshelp.org, Chuck Konzelman said: “I live in a country where my daughter at 13 can have an abortion without her parents’ consent, but she can’t go to see this movie.” This, by the way, almost became a reality for Kazakhstan. A bill allowing 16-year-old girls to have an abortion without parental consent was recently introduced and considered, but which, fortunately, was rejected. The article also reports that regarding abortion laws in the US, Kanzelman said: “I believe that in the long run, as a nation, we can either crave the blessing of God, or we can desire an abortion. We cannot crave both at the same time.”
For many parents, the prohibition for children under 16 seeing the film caused outrage that they began to express openly. To which the answer was a letter from Abby Johnson to parents, in which she openly talks about two scenes in the film which, apparently, were the reason for the ban. She does not encourage parents to take their children to see this film, but says that her own twelve-year-old daughter will see it. In response to this letter, published on Abby’s personal Facebook page, 112 comments have already been left, most of which stated that their children, despite their young age, will see this film. Some noted that their children are already familiar with this story from Abby’s book, which formed the basis of the script.
There are a lot of life stories around “Unplanned”. Some of the ultrasound scenes were filmed at the suggestion of one of the editors, whose wife was then 13 weeks pregnant. And their baby, as Directors joke, was the first actor to play his first role, while still in the womb. The doctors and nurses in the film are also people who in real life were doctors and nurses performing abortions. It had to be as realistic as possible. This was another feature of the film, for which he was accused of Christian propaganda. But the goal of the Directors, as they say in an interview with Glen Beck, was not to make a Christian film, but to make a truly realistic film.
Igor Beloborodov, scientific director of the Independent Institute of Family and Demography, head of the working group on the Protection of the Family and Traditional Family Values of the public council under the ombudsman under the RF President on the rights of the child, did not remain out from the discussion. On April 2, his article “Fighting Against Abortions on Screen.” was published on the website of the information and analytical service “Russian People’s Line”. It states: “An important argument of the Pro-life community, appearing to the abortive lobby as a sentence, is two opposite answers to the same question. How many former employees of the abortion industry do you think subsequently became opponents of abortion and joined the Pro-life movement? Answer: more than 500 people. And this is only in the USA… And now, attention (!), how many anti-abortion activists have changed their views and joined the abortion industry? Answer: 0 (zero)”.
Igor Beloborodov congratulates the United States on such a successful film project, which already on the first day of the show took in 6.1 million dollars in ticket revenue in 1,051 cinemas in the country, and earned for this result in its category an honorable second place after the film “God did not die-2”. After all, in his opinion, the social effects of this film project will be: “saving millions of children’s lives and futures of adults, reducing loyalty to abortion, improving the demographic situation for years to come, strengthening the capacity of resource centers for the prevention of abortion, reducing negative demographic indicators (divorce, suicide, female oncology). But at the same time, he shows indignation because Russia does not think about this problem despite the fact that it “has been one of the world leaders in the number of abortions performed annually for many years in a row”. Kazakhstan, as you know, is not lagging behind in this regard.
Officially in the Russian-language the film has not yet been released, although the pirated version in Russian can already be found in the Internet for online viewing. We hope that this film will find its place among the premieres in Kazakh cinemas.
Images from the site https://www.unplannedfilm.com/
