The Motion Picture Association of America officially gave the upcoming abortion film “Unplanned” an “R” rating Friday for “some disturbing/bloody images” of aborted babies. Movies are rated R for profanity, nudity, sex, or violence. “Unplanned” contains no profanity, nudity, or sex. “Ironically, the MPAA seems to be indirectly endorsing the pro-life position: namely that abortion is an act of violence,” writers and directors Cary Solomon and Chuck Konzelman told Movieguide. The film tells the true story of former Planned Parenthood clinic director Abby Johnson who worked at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Bryan, Texas, until 2009 when she left the organization after assisting in an ultrasound-guided abortion of a 13-week-old unborn baby. Johnson was Planned Parenthood’s youngest director of a clinic in the nation. She helped over 22,000 women have abortions during her time at the clinic. Planned Parenthood named Johnson as the employee of the year in 2008. She worked at the abortion provider for eight years before leaving the group. Johnson also had a medication abortion before she became pro-life. The R rating will mean that “many teenage women in this country who can legally obtain an actual abortion without parental permission will be prohibited from going to see our film containing simulated images of abortion, without obtaining parental permission,” Solomon and Konzelman also said, noting the double-edged sword of the rating. A parent or guardian, however, can accompany a child younger than 17 to an R-rated film. “We are pushing the boundaries of what has never been before on such a wide scale by showing America exactly what abortion is—and abortion is disturbing. It’s violent,” Johnson said in a statement. Johnson is the founder of pro-life group And Then There Were None, which helps abortion workers leave the industry. It also helps women who’ve had abortions and are suffering. The group was founded in 2012. Since leaving Planned Parenthood, Johnson has helped roughly 500 former abortion workers leave their jobs and find other careers outside of the abortion industry. Seven of those workers were abortion doctors. “No one will walk away from seeing this movie and say ‘I didn’t know,’” she added. “Unplanned” hits theaters on March 29. Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities for this original content, email [email protected].<doc-sep>NEW A vastly improved search engine helps you find the latest on companies, business leaders, and news more easily.<doc-sep>In the wake of anti-abortion movie "Unplanned" receiving an R-rating — which the Motion Picture Association of America said was not politically motivated — the filmmakers are disputing the decision, The Hollywood Reporter said. "Unplanned" — the true story of Abby Johnson, a renowned pro-life activist who once worked for Planned Parenthood — would be the first R-rated movie from distributor Pure Flix Entertainment, known for faith-based and family-friendly films such as "God's Not Dead," the outlet said. "Unplanned" is set for a March 29 release. Image source: YouTube screenshot The MPAA told The Hollywood Reporter that the "Unplanned" R-rating was for "some disturbing/bloody images" — and informed the filmmakers that all the abortion scenes must be removed or altered or else the R-rating stays. "We have three scenes in the film which directly address abortion, and the MPAA objected to all three," Cary Solomon, the movie's co-writer and co-director, told the outlet. "They specifically made mention of objection to grainy, black-and-white sonogram images that were part of one of the scenes. It was clear that any meaningful treatment of the issue was going to be objectionable." More from The Hollywood Reporter: The MPAA told Pure Flix that the most problematic scene featured a doctor gazing at a computer screen that shows the image of a fetus as the abortion is completed. The doctor in the scene is real-life Dr. Anthony Levatino, who says he has performed about 1,200 abortions over the years. "The portrayal of a live, moving fetus disappearing is very accurate," Levatino said. "You're watching an abortion. It's an accurate view of what's happening. It's disturbing if you recognize it's a human life." An R-rating means those under 17 years of age can't watch "Unplanned" without a parent or adult guardian, and the filmmakers and Pure Flix told the outlet there's no profanity, nudity, violence, drug abuse, or anything typically associated with an R-rating. "A 15-year old girl can get an abortion without her parent's permission, but she can't see this movie without adult supervision? That's sad," Ken Rather, Pure Flix executive vice president, told the outlet. The Hollywood Reporter said the MPAA's ratings process involves a board of about 10 people from all walks of life — all of whom have children — voting and debating until they come to a majority agreement. "Any film submitter who objects to the given rating can choose to go through the appeals process. To date, the distributor has chosen not to," an MPAA spokesperson told the outlet regarding the "Unplanned" R-rating. "Our rules provide a detailed timeline for the appeals process. There was sufficient time for it to be completed in advance of the film's March 29 release." How did the filmmakers react? The MPAA's R-rating prompted "Unplanned" filmmakers to complain to MPAA CEO Charles Rivkin, The Hollywood Reporter said. "We consider the MPAA's current standards to be deeply flawed, insofar as they allow scenes of remarkably graphic sex, violence, degradation, murder and mayhem to have a PG-13 rating, whereas our film, highlighting the grave dangers of abortion in a straightforward manner, is considered dangerous for the American people to view," Solomon and fellow co-writer and co-director Chuck Konzelman wrote in a letter to Rivkin, the outlet added. But the filmmakers aren't changing a thing, The Hollywood Reporter noted, and Pure Flix won't appeal the R-rating due to concern that such a process — which rarely works out for petitioners — would delay distribution. "This story needs to be told, and the message needed to be delivered," PureFlix president Michael Scott told the outlet. "It is our calling as Christians to tell the story about the moral implications of abortion that the mainstream media refuses to acknowledge." Here's how TheBlaze's Steve Deace responded: Check out this trailer for "Unplanned":<doc-sep>
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) gave the upcoming abortion movie Unplanned an R-rating Friday, citing “some disturbing, bloody images.” But the movie’s filmmakers fear the rating is motivated by politics. “We made a pro-life movie in a pro-choice town” said Chuck Konzelman, who along with Cary Solomon wrote and directed Unplanned. For Solomon, the R-rating smacks of hypocrisy. “The standard used to rate our movie is being applied inconsistently as it relates to bloody images on-screen,” he told me in a phone interview. “In fact, Happy Death Day 2U (a “slasher” film with several violent murder scenes) has far more blood and gore than our film and it received a PG-13 rating.” Indeed, most R-rated films are labelled as such for featuring sexual scenes, profanity, nudity, or violence — all of which Unplanned has none. The filmmakers had hoped for a PG-13 rating. The film tells the true-life story of former Planned Parenthood clinic director Abby Johnson, who left the abortion giant in 2009 to become a pro-life activist. Mike Lindell, founder and CEO of My Pillow, invested $1 million to the movie’s production. “I’m pro-life and I’m happy to do it,” Lindell told the Hollywood Reporter. The filmmakers told me their movie depicts scenes of Johnson, played by actress Ashley Bratcher, bleeding and vomiting on the floor after taking an abortion pill. The MPAA also objected to scenes showing a doctor looking at images of a fetus after an abortion. The MPAA told Konzelman and Solomon to either cut the abortion scenes or edit them. “The blood is in no way gratuitous,” Konzelman told me. “For us to not include blood in these critical scenes would be to severely cheapen this true story.” “We have three scenes in the film which directly address abortion, and the MPAA objected to all three,” Solomon said. “They specifically made mention of objection to grainy, black and white sonogram images that were part of one of the scenes. It was clear that any meaningful treatment of the issue was going to be objectionable.” An MPAA spokesperson said that the film’s distributor, Pure Flix — the studio behind God’s Not Dead — didn’t respond to the organization’s appeals process in a timely manner. Pure Flix president Michael Scott fired back saying, “This story needs to be told and the message needed to be delivered.” “It is our calling as Christians to tell the story about the moral implications of abortion that the mainstream media refuses to acknowledge,” Scott said. Pure Flix is charging ahead and plan to release Unplanned with its R-rating. “Most Americans believe Hollywood’s God is money. No. Their God is a liberal agenda that they serve without fail. And we are anathema to that,” Solomon said. Unplanned opens in theaters everywhere on March 29. Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson