The film Unplanned tells the story of Abby Johnson, a former director at Planned Parenthood who eventually became a pro-life advocate. Unplanned was nominated for a Movieguide award in the categories of "best film for mature audiences" and the "Faith and Freedom Award." A Movieguide award show was aired on the Hallmark Channel on February 24, but all references to Unplanned were completely edited out of the show. Lead actress Ashley Bratcher took notice and targeted a flurry of social media posts at Hallmark. Now, Hallmark has directed Movieguide to re-edit the video of the award show so it can be aired once again including the pro-life film.
“We have scheduled the MOVIEGUIDE® Awards to re-air on Hallmark Drama on Monday, March 9th at 10 PM.,” Movieguide founder and publisher Ted Baehr told LifeSiteNews. “It will also be available on the TV Everywhere app. All telecasts will include mentions of the film, ‘Unplanned’ and its lead actress, Ashley Bratcher. We at Crown Media [Hallmark] extend our sincere apologies to Ashley.”
Baehr also told LifeSiteNews that he advocated for Unplanned's nomination to the award show, but in the end, it was up to Movieguide videographer Jeremy Carroll to edit the three-and-a-half-hour ceremony down to a 42-minute version for television. Before Hallmark directed Movieguide to re-edit the show, he defended Carroll's decisions. “I’m not going to go to my editor…and tell him he shouldn’t have cut it,” Baehr said. “I’m sure he cut it for good reasons, and I’m sure he’d make the right decisions and I trust my editors.”
Baehr has since called and apologized to Ashley Bratcher personally.
