LOS ANGELES, February 15, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – The trailer for the movie “Unplanned” about former Planned Parenthood manager Abby Johnson’s pro-life conversion has reached the top spot on iTunes.
On iTunes, viewings of the “Unplanned” trailer surpassed those for “Child’s Play,” “Avengers: Endgame,” and “Aladdin.” The preview has also been viewed on Facebook 2.5 million times.
“Unplanned” is a film adaption of Johnson’s best-selling 2010 autobiographical book of the same name. The film tells the real-life story of Johnson’s journey from Planned Parenthood facility manager to pro-life activist.
The pro-life film was unveiled just after the annual March for Life in January and is scheduled for released on March 29. Distributed by PureFlix, it will reach 800 screens across the U.S. next month. Directing the film were Chuck Konzelman and Cary Solomon, who also were behind the hit film “God's Not Dead.”
Ashley Bratcher, who plays Abby Johnson in the forthcoming film, said that she is “blown away” by the “incredible” news, reported Daily Wire. Mike Lindell, the founder and CEO of My Pillow, is an investor in the film and said he was not surprised by the trailer’s success. He told Daily Wire: “This powerful and true story will uncover the truth and reminds us all that all children, born and unborn, deserve our love.”
When the trailer was released last month, Abby Johnson recalled her days as a convinced abortion advocate who thought she was actually helping women. She said her life changed when she saw a baby fighting for its life during an abortion. “I understood the enormity of my actions,” she said. “I had to leave.”
“No one will be able to walk away after seeing this movie and say, 'I didn't know,'” she added.
Johnson reveals in her story how she would often escort women from their cars as they sought abortions at the clinic she directed in Bryan, Texas. She was eventually named “Employee of the Year” in 2008. She herself had two abortions at the clinic.
As depicted in “Unplanned,” Johnson would later assist an ultrasound-guided abortion of a 13-week-old preborn baby. Witnessing the horror of the abortion was a watershed moment in her life. She wrote in her memoir, “Unplanned,” that she watched during the ultrasound how the baby was writhing in pain as it was being dismembered and sucked out of its mother’s womb.
“For the briefest moment,” she wrote in her memoir, “the baby looked as if it were being wrung like a dishcloth, twirled and squeezed. And then it crumpled and began disappearing into the cannula before my eyes. The last thing I saw was the tiny, perfectly formed backbone sucked into the tube, and then it was gone.”
Traumatized by what she saw, Johnson later met with activists of the Coalition for Life, even while she continued to work for Planned Parenthood. She later joined the pro-life movement and founded the organization “And Then There Were None,” which helps abortion workers to leave the industry and find other careers. She and her husband are now expecting their eighth child.