Media companies are refusing to air advertisements for an anti-abortion movie that criticizes the practices of Planned Parenthood.
The Hallmark Channel, Lifetime, and media properties owned by the Discovery conglomerate are among the organizations that rejected the movie’s advertisements. The movie’s producers says that Fox News Channel is the only mainstream media outlet to have accepted its advertisements.
The movie, “Unplanned,” premiered in 1,000 movie theaters across the nation. Pure Flix, the production company behind the film, primarily targets Christian and social conservative audiences. Its feature “God’s Not Dead” grossed over $62 million on a $2 million budget, according to box office releases in 2014.
“Unplanned,” which is about former Planned Parenthood employee and later anti-abortion activist Abby Johnson, is the company’s first film to garner an R rating from the Motion Picture Association of America.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Lifetime’s public relations team told “Unplanned” producers that the network would reject the movie’s advertisements because of the “sensitive nature of the film.” Discovery-owned companies, including the Travel Channel, Cooking Channel, HGTV, and Food Network, all echoed the sentiment put out by Lifetime.
“Most of the networks didn’t go into detail beyond citing the subject matter of the film and that they didn’t want to get into politics. But we don’t believe we’re in the political category,” said Joe Knopp, a producer for the film.
