Roughly 50% of this country identify as being pro-choice, meaning that members of this group believe that abortion should be legal at least in the early stages of a pregnancy. I have often wondered how many of this group would remain pro-choice if they really knew what was involved with abortion. Rather than agreeing with a lofty concept of letting a woman have a “right to choose,” would they maintain the courage of their convictions if they actually spent time in an abortion clinic to witness what happens there?

For I hope obvious reasons, I myself have not gone to an abortion clinic for this purpose, but I have read the testimonies of women who have gotten abortions and people who have worked at such facilities. And just recently I had a great opportunity to witness the story of a former abortion industry worker.

I saw the film Unplanned in its opening weekend. This is the story of Abby Johnson, who was the director of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Texas. That is until she had an epiphany that the abortion services they were providing involved more than extracting mere blobs of fetal tissue. A live ultrasound of an abortion at 13 weeks she was assisting with did the trick for her. She watched live as a fetus reacted as it was torn apart piece-by-piece and sucked into a tube out of the mother. Rather than seeing a blob of tissue, Abby saw a living being with arms and legs, a torso and a head being ripped apart.

Prior to that, Abby was a true believer, a model Planned Parenthood employee. She had two abortions herself, and believed that she was truly helping women solve their problems. She had a normal job, a normal work life, with work friends and lots of career aspirations. She even once toured, outwardly unfazed, the P.O.C. (Products of Conception) room where the remains of the aborted fetuses were reassembled to ensure nothing was left behind in the mother’s wombs.

Now, admittedly, this is a story focused on someone who changed her mind about abortion. There are certainly many more abortion workers who have remained at their jobs, presumably having full careers even until retirement, without ever changing their minds. But as with many great stories, this one focuses on the epiphany, the conversion of Abby’s heart. She saw what went on day after day in her clinic, but did not really comprehend what she was doing. And then she did, and she had to get out. Not many of us have such conversions; otherwise, this would not be a particularly extraordinary story.

As I am not especially schooled in this area, I will not comment on the quality of the filmmaking, other than to say I found it to be a well-told story, and framed very well around Abby’s epiphany. The film starts with that and then flashes back to her history with abortion and Planned Parenthood. Her experience with the ultrasound abortion is then repeated to great effect. I found myself welling up (I don’t cry very easily, BTW) when she finally realized what abortion really was.

And a good story is helped greatly by an outstanding bad guy. As Star Wars would be nothing without Darth Vader and the Galactic Empire, just so, Unplanned has Cheryl (Abby’s former mentor) as its Vader and the truly evil corporation, Planned Parenthood, as the Empire. (Would that they were in galaxy far, far away…)

I also appreciated the film’s honest portrayal of the two opposing forces for and against abortion. The main pro-life characters, Shawn and Marilisa, seem too saint-like at times (for all I know, they may really be saints!), but the film is unafraid to show some ugliness from the pro-life protesters. A big, ugly man is seen shouting vile things at women as they arrive at the clinic. Another one wears a grim reaper outfit. On the other hand, the workers at the clinic are portrayed as normal, decent people working very normal jobs in the medical field. They are even given opportunities to express their opinions and rationale as to why they are there.

This honesty demonstrates a confidence in the pro-life message of the movie. The best arguments of the pro-choice side are aired, and the purported factual workings of an abortion clinic are revealed. I have rarely, if ever, seen a similar honesty from the pro-choice side, who are masters with the euphemisms that disguise and deflect from the central problem of abortion—the death of human beings.

So, would more education about abortion move more people to the pro-life side? I hope and pray so. Unplanned will be a wonderful tool for this for many years to come. However, will there be many who remain unmoved by Abby’s story? Very likely. They will also need to have that great epiphany, which unfortunately is quite rare.