VANCOUVER—Canadian doctors and abortion care providers say a new anti-abortion film premiering in Canada on Friday misrepresents the facts about abortion.

Unplanned is based on a memoir by Abby Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood clinic director who became an anti-abortion advocate and now leads an organization that provides support for abortion care providers who want to “leave the abortion industry.”

Unplanned depicts a period in Johnson’s life when she personally accessed two abortions and rose up the ranks of Planned Parenthood, starting as a volunteer and eventually becoming the director of a clinic in Texas. The pivotal moment comes when she assists with an ultrasound-guided abortion and sees a fetus “twisting and fighting” away from the abortion instruments — a scene many health-care providers have condemned as unrealistic.

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Several pro-choice organizations have spoken out about the potential dangers of the film.

The Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada calls Unplanned “a dangerous piece of anti-abortion propaganda” containing “vicious falsehoods.” National Abortion Federation Canada Director Jill Doctoroff said she’s concerned that “it looks like a regular movie,” but “really it’s more propaganda.”

“It can be hard for people to distinguish between what’s really based on true facts and what’s been changed from reality,” Doctoroff said in an interview.

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Why experts say anti-abortion movie Unplanned should be allowed to screen — even if it's problematic

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Johnson, however, maintains the film is accurate.

“While there may be a few abortion supporting doctors who state that the film is inaccurate, there are many other physicians who have publicly responded, stating that this is exactly what abortion looks like and that the film is entirely medically accurate,” Johnson said in a statement provided to Star Vancouver via email.

Star Vancouver has viewed the film and fact-checked a few of its most questionable portrayals and claims about abortion, consulting with Abby Johnson and experts provided by the film’s PR team, as well as with prominent medical experts not affiliated with the film.

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FACT CHECK:

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The movie: In the first scene, an ultrasound is performed on a woman who is in the process of having an abortion. The 13-week fetus is depicted with a large head approximately 1/3 the length of its body, which has somewhat developed limbs and joints.

What the filmmakers say: Abby Johnson said this was normal growth and referred to a page on thebump.com, which stated a fetus would be “as big as a lemon.”

Fact check: Dr. Jen Gunter, a U.S.-based OBGYN with experience providing abortions, and author of the upcoming book The Vagina Bible, said that while it would be difficult to tell the age of the fetus by simply looking at an image, it was likely the fetus would be “more advanced” than 13 weeks.

“You’d have to know measurements ... in real life it’s really small, just a few centimetres,” she said.

The movie: The doctor insists on using an ultrasound as a guide while he performs an aspiration abortion. He pushes a catheter tube toward the fetus, and it squirms and flails away. The doctor says “They always move, that’s why I do it this way,” referring to the fetus attempting to evade the vacuum suction of the tube. The woman receiving the abortion appears to be in pain and is crying.

What the filmmakers say: The film’s team provided the Star Vancouver with a response from Dr. Kathi Aultman, a retired OB/Gyn and former abortion provider, who said that “such reactions by the fetus have been scientifically documented in numerous studies” and said the depiction of this abortion “was not sensationalized but very accurate for the gestational age and technique that was used.”

Aultman, a former abortion provider, is a devout Christian and anti-abortion advocate. In a November 2018 video interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, Aultman compared abortion to murder, and said she is a “mass murderer” for having performed abortions. She said that she healed from her past wrongs with a counsellor who prayed with her and spoke in tongues.

Fact check: Gunter told Star Vancouver that this scene from the film was “100 per cent bullshit.”

“Fetuses are not capable of purposeful movement,” she said. “That’s not proven scientifically ... That’s just not a thing.”

She added that pain can vary depending on the patient, but that if someone was in a lot of pain during a procedure, doctors would stop and check in.

“Most people are not in a lot of pain with modern techniques,” Gunter said. “Some people might be more emotional, you can image how traumatic it might be for someone who has had a sexual assault, but we would stop if someone was in a lot of pain.”

The movie: Abby’s character in the film says she regrets her abortion. “Anger disappeared only to be faced with self loathing,” she says, and various depictions of women who had abortions throughout the film suggest that this is how people can expect to feel after having an abortion.

What the filmmakers say: “It’s one of the many feelings associated with having an abortion,” said Johnson in a statement.

Fact check: Women who have abortions have varying emotional responses, medical experts say. A 2017 peer-reviewed article published in JAMA Psychiatry titled “Women’s Mental Health and Well-being 5 Years After Receiving or Being Denied an Abortion” studied 956 women over 5 years and concluded that while women who had abortions did present with adverse psychological outcomes, there was greater risk of those symptoms for women who were denied abortions.

These findings also do not support policies that restrict women’s access to abortion on the basis that abortion harms women’s mental health. Having worked in abortion care for ten years, Doctoroff said most clients are grateful for the professional and compassionate care they receive, a sentiment echoed by women who shared their abortion experiences with Star Vancouver.

The movie: In another scene, Abby takes the RU-486 pill, also known as the abortion pill. She is told that the cut off to take the pill is nine weeks.

Fact check: Gunter confirmed that nine or 10 weeks is the cut off for the abortion pill.

The movie: An hour after Abby takes the pill, she is shown screaming and stumbling for the bathroom, blood dripping from her legs while she vomits. She passes large clots and more blood into the tub. Abby says she spent “12 hours in agony” before the pain went away, and it was followed by “eight weeks of blood clots, eight weeks of excruciating cramps.”

What the filmmakers say: Johnson describes this experience as “very common.”

Fact check: Gunter said this depiction “wouldn’t be normal at all” for someone taking the abortion pill. While some bleeding does occur, Gunter said that “people aren’t sent home to bleed in the bathtub.”

However, she said pain levels can vary, and are usually dependent on how much pain a person has during their monthly period. “Some women have such painful periods that it’s worse than a heart attack ... Usually it’s like a really heavy, crampy period.”

The movie: In another scene, a clinic staff member tells Abby about the “products of conception,” or POC room, in which she says doctors keep the fetus parts from an abortion and must reassemble the baby parts to make sure “nothing is left in the patient.” She says there are usually 30 to 40 petri dishes of these fetus remains by the end of the day.

What the filmmakers say: Johnson says that abortion clinics must have a POC procedure. “The clinic staff needs to make sure that no parts of the fetus are left inside the woman because that can cause serious infection and other complications.”

Fact check: While she agreed that biological matter from abortions are referred to as “products of conception,” Gunter, who has performed abortions at U.S.-based hospitals, said this depiction wasn’t entirely accurate.

She said medical staff would examine the tissue to ensure it looked like “placental type tissue,” but it would never be done in another room — it would only be completed while the procedure was taking place. She said that the same would be done in any form of surgery to ensure that everything that needed to be removed from the patient was removed.

The movie: In a scene when Abby becomes a clinic director, she says “Part of my job was selling abortion and I was really good at it.” At an annual meeting, a Planned Parenthood manager says that “Each of your clinics are being assigned growth targets to double the number of elective procedures.” Later, the manager says “abortion pays your salary, it pays for everything.”

What the filmmakers say: Johnson refers to the story of Sue Thayer, a former Planned Parenthood staff member, who maintains there are quotas.

Fact check: “I would be surprised that anybody ever said we need to get abortion numbers up,” said Gunter.

The film depicts a U.S.-based Planned Parenthood clinic, so while abortion clinics may have different financial structures, experts say that the core principles would be the same.

“Aspiration abortions or medication abortions are part of our health care system — it’s not profitable in Canada. It’s something that we, as a tax base, invest in,” says Michelle Fortin, executive director of Options for Sexual Health.

She also said abortion is not profitable in the United States either.

Planned Parenthood in the U.S. is a non-profit organization. According to its 2017-2018 annual report 72 per cent of its operating budget comes from private donations, government health services reimbursements and grants.

The organization provides sex education and sexual and reproductive health care at clinics and lobbies governments for increased access to health care. Clinics also provide STI testing, birth control, cancer screening, abortions and more.