Fr. Ted Colleton Scholarship
third place winner Nikole Wassenaar
Nikole Wassenaar
Editor’s Note: Nikole Wassenaar who attends Smithville Christian High School in Smithville, Ont., finished third in the 2019-2020 Fr. Ted Essay Scholarship. This is her essay.
Slaughter or solution? This question has been an ongoing controversy for decades. ln recent years there has been a growing divide on this topic and many were surprised to hear that a pro-life movie entitled Unplanned, based on the true life story of Abby Johnson, was being made. This movie shocked pro-choicers and pro-lifers alike with its bold and honest realities regarding abortion. The movie’s main character, Abby Johnson, strives to help women as much as possible. ln this film, Abby gets involved with an abortion clinic called Planned Parenthood, where she becomes the youngest clinic director ever. She excels at her job and seven years after she started earns the employee of the year award. However, her world is turned upside down when an abortion doctor calls on Abby to assist him by following the abortion on ultrasound. This experience shakes her to the core as she sees the unborn child fighting to escape the suction. She no longer cares about women’s rights; all she sees is the baby helplessly dying at the mercy of the surgical instruments. Abby quits her job and begins volunteering with the pro-life group outside her clinic. This powerful testimony of Abby Johnson promotes the value of human life by making people aware of the weightiness of the term “abortion,” showing the unborn child as a separate being from the mother, and painting pro-lifers as pro-women.
Many people view abortion as a solution to an inconvenient pregnancy, but they don’t take the time to think about it. This could stem from a fear of finding the truth, and so many are ignorant to the possibility of a separate human life growing and developing in a woman’s body. Ignorance is bliss, right? However, the plot takes viewers on a roller coaster of events and experiences, and reveals what the term “abortion” actually holds. Many people are uneducated about the true horror of it and merely need an eye opener, which is what the movie successfully achieves. Unplannedbegins with Abby having the same perspective as most people in society: abortions help women and should be a basic right. She is first drawn in when, at university, she notices the Planned Parenthood kiosk and a representative explaining the purported purpose of the clinic and how Abby can get involved – sugar-coating the practice of abortion, as so many do: “When a woman really needs an abortion, our clinic provides security. lt is hard to believe that there are still people who want to say what to do and what not to do with our body.”(Unplanned). Abby then starts out volunteering as a clinic staff escort, helping the women turn their backs on the crowds of people shouting insults and curses at them. Once she takes a paid position, she quickly rises to the top and becomes the youngest clinic director in the history of Planned Parenthood, all the while having a distorted view on what abortion truly is. To her, abortion is a woman’s right, as she aggressively informs Shawn Carney, a kindhearted pro-lifer who is recording his fellow advocates praying along the fence: “There have always been peopledefending human rights. First the fight against slavery, then there were people who wereagainst the Holocaust, and then the fight of Planned Parenthood that fights for the reproductiverights of women.”Shawn gently explains that her examples of injustice,” … slavery, segregation, and the Holocaust that just occurs when a whole segment of the population is dehumanized and that is just what your clinic does to newborns.”Even this powerful statement does not change her mind. lt isn’t until she witnessesthe procedure on the ultrasound that she realizes what she is doing. This is the result of peoplebeing educated. This reflects the importance of life and that if people were to look a little deeper,they would realize this. People need to understand that the rights of the two parties (child andmother) are actually on the same side.
Abby’s view on women over children is shattered the moment she walks into the procedure room and sees the baby desperately trying to avoid the suction. She hears the heartbeat; she sees the figure moving around. She then witnesses the most heartbreaking event as the baby is viciously ripped from the uterus, and she finally sees the fetus for what it really is: a living, breathing, moving human being. lt is at this point in the movie where she realizes that the body inside is separate from the mother’s. People can attempt to argue this, but this movie speaks truth, and it is a testimony. Even science proves this to be right: there are two separate DNA codes, meaning there are two separate people. Having someone such as Abby Johnson – the director of an abortion clinic – realize this, will have an effect on viewers. This shows the value of children from the moment of conception. This shows that they are people, too, though they are not completely developed.
When people choose to be either pro-life or pro-choice, they assume that the choice needs to be made between the woman and the embryo/child. Many people base their opinions of “rights:” whose rights do we choose, fetus or woman? ln reality, however, it’s not the choice between a woman and a fetus, but rather, deciding whether the significance of a further developed human being is superior to that of one less developed. Unplannedslices these stereotypes and paints pro-lifers as pro-women. This is seen in Shawn and his wife Marilisa while they stand at the gate of Planned Parenthood, praying for the aborted children and trying to convince the women to change their mind. They don’t stand there and shout and scream at the women walking into the clinic, as the other group of people are doing. ln fact, Marilisa tells Abby that she has asked them to stop, but they don’t listen. “We have asked many times for them to stop but we can’t force them to do anything. You’re right, Abby.”(Cary Solomon and Chuck Konzelman, Unplanned). Instead, they stand patiently and quietly waiting for an opportunity to speak some encouragement and truth to the young women. They understand that if a girl is walking into an abortion clinic, chances are she is going through tremendous struggles: an unhealthy relationship, the consequence of a single mistake, peer pressure from family or friends, or others on top of the internal conflict she is definitely dealing with. Not only do they speak the truth in love, but they also promise to help the women find other solutions that do not involve killing the child. This demonstrates not only a positive view on the life of the unborn child, but also love for the women.
Making people aware of the weight of the term “abortion,” showing the unborn child as a separate being from the mother, and painting pro-lifers as pro-women are three ways that Unplannedshows the significance and purpose of human life. Abby, Marilisa and Shawn Carney are the three most significant characters in terms of advocating the importance of human life, and Abby’s turning point in the abortion procedure room is what hits readers with the filthy reality of abortion. So now it’s time to decide for yourself. Do you believe that a child is human from the moment of conception?
