On August 16, 2021, the C8 channel will broadcast the film “Unplanned.” Inspired by a true story and funded by the Evangelical Church, this ultra-conservative feature film promotes a deliberately anti-abortion discourse.
Film screening Unplanned, directed by Cary Solomon and Chuck Konzelman, on C8 on August 16, 2021, shivers down your spine. And for good reason: the film, whose trailer was broadcast on the ultra-concerving channel Fox News in the United States, carries an anti-abortion message. Based on a true story, it tells the story of a woman, Abby Johnson, an employee of Planned Parenthood in Texas, who became an anti-abortion activist. To top it off, this film, which rightly divides, was funded by the Evangelical Protestant Church, according to Puremedia.
How is such a choice of programming possible in France, in 2021? Flashback: last April, the new positioning of C8 was announced. It will now be a “feel good, family, supportive and useful channel”, according to a press release published in the Sunday Newspaper. With the release of this film which calls into question the rights of women to dispose of their bodies, we are still looking for this new editorial line. What does C8 want to defend … We note on the other hand a rather frightening political bias.
Diffusion of “Unplanned” divides internally at C8
And the direction the TV channel is taking with the broadcast of Unplanned, the day after the Assumption, divides internally. Chloé Sitbon and Guillaume Orsat, the two actors officially responsible for lending their voices in the C8 trailers, did not wish to work on the promotion of the film. “We, Guillaume and I, asked our employers not to use our voices and to find another solution for this trailer”, said Chloé Sitbon, according to The Dispatch.
Read also : Abortion: why we must extend the legal period for abortion
In 2021, the rights of women to dispose of their bodies are still fragile
As a reminder, in France “hindering the voluntary termination of pregnancy” is an offense that can be punished with imprisonment and / or a fine, as indicated in article L162-15 of the Public Health Code.
The broadcast of a film like Unplanned proves, once again, that the right to abortion remains weakened, in France as in other democracies. In the same vein, in January 2021, a majority of unaffected men voted against extending the abortion period. In the United States, we remember Donald Trump, the country’s first president to participate in “The walk for life”, anti-abortion demonstration. Women and people with wombs currently do not need a large chain to support these dangerous speeches.