Part 2
“This idea that we would drum up business is silly,” Villavicencio said. “That’s not a thing. Abortion has existed since we knew what pregnancy was, and it will not go away.”
Abortions are sensationalized like a horror movie
While everyone’s abortion is different, “Unplanned” presents the experience as an excruciatingly painful one. Women are seen crying out while insensitive doctors and nurses bark at them and hold them down. Blood ― pooling in socks, dripping on floors ― is a central motif.
The movie gives an inaccurate and fearmongering depiction of the procedure, Villavicencio said.
“Most people tolerate abortions throughout the first and second trimester very well,” she said, adding that clinics use medications ranging from local anesthesia to deep sedation to manage pain.
She noted that abortions, for the most part, are exceptionally short procedures.
“They last anywhere from three to 10 minutes,” she said. “I tell my patients: ‘This may be intense for you, but it will last a short while and I will talk you through it and you will make it.’”
Abortion is inaccurately depicted as extremely dangerous
In “Unplanned,” a doctor accidentally perforates a teen girl’s uterus while performing an abortion. As the girl goes into shock, the clinic workers decide not to call an ambulance because they’re afraid of bad publicity. Instead, they lie to her father and give her drugs so she won’t remember what happened.
In reality, serious complications during abortion are rare, and occur less frequently than during childbirth. In 2013, a total of 664,435 abortions were reported to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Only four women died as a result of complications that year.
“Abortion is one of the safest outpatient procedures that you can have in the U.S.,” Villavicencio said. “You are less likely to have a complication than a colonoscopy or a wisdom tooth extraction.”
She said it was comically offensive to suggest that an abortion clinic would jeopardize a patient’s safety by refusing to call an ambulance during a medical emergency.
Abortion clinicians are portrayed as villains and monsters
The abortion providers and staff in “Unplanned” are depicted as uncaring and inhumane. They crack jokes about dead babies, ignore patients who are visibly in pain and seem to lack even the most basic social manners.
When Abby learns, while standing in the bathroom at work, that she is pregnant, her boss does not congratulate or hug her. Instead, she offers her an abortion. “You know, we could take care of that for you if you like,” she spits.
Villavicencio said she has had the opposite experience working at abortion clinics.
“OB-GYNs and family medicine doctors who do abortions are some of the most compassionate, empathetic people I’ve ever met,” she said. “They put themselves through discomfort ― walking through protesters, getting threats, having sometimes the disdain of their own medical community ― in order to provide this care.”
Prayer has magical properties, can stop abortions
In the movie, Abby claims that up to 75 percent of women will not show up at an abortion clinic if they see people praying outside. It comes across as a call to arms to the audience: Go to your local abortion provider and pray.
Villavicencio raised doubts about the veracity of the statistic. Protesters pray outside her clinics every day, she said, and their no-show rate is not significantly affected.
“Might they convince people to change their minds? Sure,” she said. “Is that coercive and manipulative? In my opinion, yes.”
End part 2
The Anti-Abortion Movie ‘Unplanned’ Is Loaded With Dangerous Lies | HuffPost
