By Paul Strand
Planned Parenthood is involved with a new film about an unwed Pennsylvania teen getting an abortion behind her parents’ back. Pro-life advocates are warning it could do a lot of harm.
“Never Rarely Sometimes Always” presents a world where it seems getting an abortion is a must for its lead character Autumn.
Near the start of the movie, Autumn tells her cousin, “I’m just not ready to be a mom.”
The two teens find Autumn can’t get an abortion in their small Pennsylvania town without her parents’ permission. So the cousin steals some money from the grocery store where they both work and they’re soon hopping a bus for a Planned Parenthood clinic in New York City and that desired abortion.
Ted Baehr of the pro-family site Movieguide.org said of the filmmakers, “They make you look at this young girl, she’s pregnant, she ‘has’ to get an abortion – they make you feel sorry for her. So then you go and you want to get everybody an abortion. So this is propaganda.”
Planned Parenthood is fully behind the film, even volunteering some of its actual staffers to appear in it. It’s part of a big push.
‘Pumping Millions of Dollars’
“Planned Parenthood decided to start a Hollywood office last year,” Baehr explained. “And it is pumping millions of dollars into the Hollywood office.”
Abby Johnson’s story of turning away from managing a Planned Parenthood clinic, after she saw up-close the gory results of abortion, is the focus of the film “Unplanned.”
She thinks “Never Rarely Sometimes Always” is the pro-abortion side’s answer to “Unplanned” and other pro-life efforts.
“I’m not surprised at all that they would do anything…come up with some sort of story to try to demean all the work that the pro-life movement has done,” Johnson told CBN News.
Says They’re Flailing, in a Frenzy, Desperate
The number of abortion clinics is shrinking in America as is the number of abortions. It’s those circumstances that lead Johnson to say of Planned Parenthood and their allies, “I think that they are flailing. I think that they are becoming unhinged. I think that they are in a frenzy unlike I’ve ever seen them before. And so they’re desperate.”
“Never Rarely Sometimes Always,” about running to Planned Parenthood, received a PG-13 rating while “Unplanned,” about Johnson walking away from Planned Parenthood, was rated R.
Pro-Life Movie Gets an R, Pro-Abortion Movie Gets a PG-13
“‘Unplanned’ is rated R. Teens can’t go see that without their parents. So the irony is not lost here,” Johnson stated, suggesting her pro-abortion foes are saying about ‘Unplanned,’ “It shows the reality of abortion from a very true perspective – we’re not going to show that to teenagers.”
But she imagines they’re saying of the PG-13 rated “Never Rarely Sometimes Always”, “Let’s romanticize abortion and show this sympathetic character who ‘needs’ to have an abortion. Let’s make that widely available to teenagers. And then let’s show teenagers how you could possibly get an abortion behind your parents’ back. Let’s make that PG-13 so that every kid across the country can see it.”
‘Young People Are Being Manipulated’
Baehr slammed rating “Never Rarely Sometimes Always” PG-13, saying that’s wrong, “Especially for a movie like this that’s a propaganda movie for them to have illicit sex and to disobey their parents and to head off to get an abortion in New York City.”
Johnson added, “We see what’s happening here. We see how young people are being manipulated every single day into believing that abortion is normal, into believing that taking the life of a human being is normal. And that abortion is a compassionate response to an unplanned pregnancy.”
99% of Critics Promote ‘Never Rarely Sometimes Always’
If you look up this new pro-abortion film on Rotten Tomatoes, you’ll find that 99 percent of the critics are giving it a big thumbs-up, a stunningly high number.
Johnson reacted, “A film with Tom Hanks doesn’t even get 99 percent thumbs up. But a pro-abortion film that’s pushing a liberal narrative – of course, that’s going to get a 99 percent thumbs up on Rotten Tomatoes.”
She said that’s because, “This fits Hollywood’s agenda. This fits the liberal media’s agenda.”
An ad promoting the film chirps, “’Never Rarely Sometimes Always’ is the best-reviewed movie of the year. The Los Angeles Times raves, ‘It’s exquisite’. The New York Times declares, ‘It’s a new and radical heroic journey’ that Entertainment Weekly calls ‘a sensation’.”
‘It Almost Happens Like Fairy Dust’
Johnson said those rave reviews prove, “Abortion is really romanticized in the media.”
She continued, “And it’s sterilized. These young girls are led to believe that abortion takes place sort of in this very sterile, neat, unemotional environment. And that it’s very quick. And that there’s no imprint of it anywhere on your mind, anywhere on your body, physically or emotionally.”
“Like it almost happens like fairy dust, right?” Johnson asked. “You walk into this clinic and someone sprinkles something on your body and the abortion is done and you sort of float out of the clinic and you never think about it again. And there are no repercussions. There are no consequences. That is how abortion is sort of glorified in our society today.”
On the Other Hand, ‘Beautiful Lives’
Contrast that to the new five-part series on PureFlix.com, “Beautiful Lives.”
“It takes people behind the scenes of the abortion industry with five former abortion workers,” said Johnson, who is one of those five profiled.
Johnson believes if teens chose to view “Beautiful Lives” instead of “Never Rarely Sometimes Always,” “I think it would show them the stark reality of what abortion really is.”
But she’s quick to point out “Beautiful Lives” isn’t just some dark anti-abortion screech. It shows how the five women profiled all fled the abortion industry and pro-abortion promotion to side with the cause of life.
God Can ‘Redeem Their Story & Use Them for Something Beautiful’
“The whole premise is showing how God can take people really from any position and any part of their lives and redeem their story and use them for something beautiful. And use them for His glory,” Johnson explained.
Meanwhile, Baehr is suggesting people of faith use their numbers to fight back against Hollywood’s lean toward the pro-abortion side. The culture can change, he said, “If people will stand up and people will say, ‘We don’t want this. We don’t want evil, pro-abortion, propaganda movies.’”
125 Million Churchgoers: That’s a Lot of Clout
Baehr pointed out, “Every week about 125 million people go to church, and only about 25 million people go to see movies. Actually the church has a lot of leverage just by numbers. Because they need those people.”
He encourages everyone upset over these movies to let Hollywood know they’re upset. Because even one voice raised can have influence, Baehr stated, explaining, “Every letter that goes into the studios, they figure that represents a thousand people.”
And he said if you want to see just why he thinks “Never Rarely Sometimes Always” can be so harmful, “Go to Movieguide.org to find out more about the movie, because we have about four pages explaining what’s going on.”