By Elizabeth Bachmann
WASHINGTON (CNS) – The directors of “Unplanned,” the life-arming, true story of a Planned Parenthood clinic director turned pro-life activist, described a White House summit on social media as a needed opportunity for conservatives to discuss how Facebook, Twitter and Google and other outlets are shutting out their voices.
Those popular online social networking services were conspicuously invitationless for the July 11 summit. Writers and directors Cary Solomon and Chuck Konzelman, who talked to Catholic News Service ahead of the event, are the creative team behind “Unplanned.”
The movie chronicles Abby Johnson’s rejection of her role as Planned Parenthood surgical abortion clinic director after assisting in an abortion and watching on the sonogram machine, for the first time, as an abortion instrument shreds a baby into pieces.
After quitting her job, Johnson worked as a pro-life activist and wrote a memoir narrating her life-changing experience, which inspired Solomon and Konzelman to create “Unplanned.”
In an April Senate hearing on free speech and online censorship, Konzelman gave examples of media bias against his film. First the Motion Picture Association of America burdened it with what the filmmakers considered an unfair R rating.
Further, Google and most cable network stations refused to play ads for “Unplanned,” and Twitter temporarily suspended the movie’s account.
Currently the pair faces a similar battle to release the film in Canada. After top Canadian distributors rejected their film, they worked, alongside New Brunswick pastor BJ McKelvie to get the film into the country.
Canadian media outlets are dubbing the film “propaganda,” claiming it propagates bias and lies about abortion and abortion clinics.
The Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada released a statement in opposition to the movie. “The film’s vicious falsehoods against providers could incite hatred and violence against them, including here in Canada,” Joyce Arthur, the coalition’s executive director, said.
Meanwhile, two independent theater owners in Canada have received death threats from abortion supporters. Backlash against the film is so violent that some theaters decided to hire extra security for the film’s opening July 12, while other theaters have decided retroactively to pull the film from their offerings.
“I think it is straight out of fascism 101 playbook,” Konzelman said.
“Pro-choice advocates claim we are creating a dangerous environment for abortion supporters. Meanwhile they have created death threats to the point that two theaters have pulled out of exhibition, one has hired security, one has said they won’t pick it up. … They create this controversy and blame the victim.”
Despite the public outcry against the film, “Unplanned” has a staunch base of pro-life supporters. It has enjoyed success at the box office, grossing $18.8 million total, with $6.4 million during its opening weekend. It was the No. 4 movie in the box office that weekend.
Now, with its upcoming DVD release Aug. 13, it already tops the Amazon best-seller list in
preorders alone.
what is astounding to me is that nearly 50 years after Roe V Wade and in spite of the incredible, indisputable scientific progress we have made to actually understand so many scientific facts about life, humans, DNA, ultrasounds, MRIs, the abortion fanatics still act as if any of their erroneous excuses used to kill millions of children (fetuses, globs of tissues, bunch of cells, not real humans) have not been eviscerated and clearly, scientifically proven false and sad. The hysterical adherence to the sliding scale of scientific facts has had to give way as each storyline has been proven false and now they are left with a comical defense of murder under the banner of “freedom”, “woman’s right to choose” and “rights end at the end of your nose”. These murderers will never discuss the simple fact that your rights as the “mother” are invariably tied to the rights of her baby that she is supposed to protect, especially as women claim parental superiority over men, while still claiming the right to kill their children. Are we really supposed to miss that disconnect? A mother’s rights also end where the child’s begins…which means that child, fully who they are at conception, has the inalienable right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. Should we not discuss the gap in rhetoric which says that you can kill your baby at your discretion, but if I run my car into a woman who is expecting a child and mother and child die, I will be charged with double- homocide…Is it a child or not? A simple walk thru the lost abortion rights arguments is littered with defeats that are never mentioned. We know so much now that we did not then, starting with DNA proving beyond the shadow of the doubt that each person is exactly who they are at the moment of inception, every single strand of DNA being unique and complete. The “viability” argument failed as soon as it was spoken, as we don’t kill one year olds who cannot take care of themselves and we don’t euthanize adults or those who otherwise cannot sustain themselves. The least vulnerable are the ones we are supposed to protect. I’ve always found it stunning that liberals want to reserve the right to kill children while they cannot bring themselves to endorse capital punishment. It is important to note that I see a similar inconsistency in pro-life folks who support capital punishment; taking a life is simply wrong, it is especially awful to kill a baby…..the ugly factual relate of what these murderous “doctors” and nurses do to children who they could otherwise welcome into this world to bring joy and love and who knows what else is just simply gross and heinous. A special place in hell is reserved for those people. don’t let them tell you it is OK because the children might grow up unwanted, in poverty or otherwise not optimally situated from day 1. The annals of history are littered with unwanted, poor or unloved children. Not very life is perfect, but everyone is valuable. Who am I to say to deem them unworthy to live, the arrogance required is incredible.
A woman’s blessing and gifts to this world are the children she bears and the joy she brings. She is also responsible for the lives inside her and outside of her. We celebrate women as strong and powerful and capable and we demand they have authority in all aspects of life, this is good news. But, we also know that with authority comes responsibility and they have to be matched. For example, the theory goes that a woman has absolute authority to decide whether the child she is carrying is aborted or born. The father is deemed to have no say over this child and its life or death. He has no authority, that all lies with the woman. If the mother chooses to have the baby, the father is responsible to pay for the child The disconnect is ludicrous, taxation without representation. The mental, emotional and legal gymnastics required to justify this are laughable. Rights and responsibilities are logically tied and once we separate them from one another, we surrender connection to morality and reality. Women are deemed to have the right to the funds in a bank account but no responsibility to fill it. This is not supportable or sustainable logic. increasingly, the fact that we performing this type of logical manipulation is allowing our entire culture to live “free” of reality, there is no connection to the parable that “you shall reap what you sow”. That is the essence of the constitution, self-determination and responsibly. Without that mindset, we are fatally falling to our moral death.
I recall vividly the day the tech performing the ultrasound on my first son saw a anomaly on my son’s brains. She believed it to be an abnormality that would render our child a down syndrome child or otherwise impaired and suggested we terminate the pregnancy. It took 2 more months and a few more high level ultrasounds to determine that he would be OK. 20 years later, what a blessing he is. The tech promoting that abortion was so cavalier with a human life, as of she was tossing out leftover tuna salad. What has happened to the women in our culture who have aborted over 50 million children in 50 years? They are supposed to be the nurturing protective parents, that is a pretty big disparity in facts. How can we leave them w children and trust them not to kill them because they are inconvenient. Convenience is not the driving force in life and certainly not the purpose of a child or an adult.
Shredding bodies of babies is murder, let’s call it what it is. Planned Parenthood does not want you aware of the facts, they clothe themselves in rhetoric and hide behind legal secrecy. Whatever you try to hide usually has a smell to it and this is no exception.
one last unmasking, do we really care about “women’s health”, which has expanded to include mental or emotional strain or stress. Nobody ever talks about the long term effects on women who have had abortions: the increase in drug use, alcoholism, suicide, depression, breast and uterine and cervical cancers and infertility. If it is so great, why do women feel so much sadness and shame about it. What are they not out celebrating. Shame and guilt are not healthy for anyone and while people may justify their abortion with “rights” and “freedom” talk, nobody is confused about what they are doing, killing their own children. You shall reap what you sow and that is not “healthy” for women.
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