(Washington Examiner) Actress Ashley Bratcher continues to show an admirable dedication to not just pro-life, but full-life, principles.
In last year’s subterranean hit movie Unplanned, now streaming on Amazon Prime, Bratcher played the role of Abby Johnson, the young Planned Parenthood clinic director who became an anti-abortion activist. (She did a superb acting job.)
[Click here to subscribe to Pregnancy Help News!]
She took the job even though she was warned Hollywood would essentially blacklist her if she did such an openly pro-life role. When plenty of Hollywood stars later threatened to boycott her home state of Georgia because of a new pro-life law there, Bratcher had the gumption to fight back, even calling boycott ringleader Alyssa Milano directly to try to talk her down.
Bratcher doesn’t just act and talk, though. She announced last year that she is partnering with Heartbeat International, an anti-abortion pregnancy resource network, to begin a scholarship program so women with unplanned pregnancies can afford to continue their educations so as to make better lives for themselves and their children. (Women can apply for the scholarships here.)
Sometimes celebrities make such announcements with fanfare, but then don’t follow through. Not Bratcher.
This week, she and Heartbeat International announced the first scholarship recipient, a young woman named Brittni in Lewiston, Idaho, who will receive $7,500 to continue her schooling. Brittni is working two jobs while trying to get a degree by the spring of 2021. She had gone to Lewiston’s Reliance Center, a pregnancy clinic, when she was eight weeks pregnant.
Bratcher has said she identifies with women in Brittni’s situation because she too, at one point, was an unwed mother with no job. Moreover, her mother literally had been at a clinic waiting for an abortion when she changed her mind, walked out, and continued the pregnancy with Ashley herself.
However Bratcher arrived at her convictions, she certainly is standing by them. And she recognizes that it’s a lot easier for women to choose life when they see more hope and opportunity in their futures. Hence, this scholarship. She and Heartbeat International are doing wonderful things by making sure that even if a baby is unplanned, it won’t be unwanted.
Tweet This: Ashley Bratcher and Heartbeat International are doing wonderful things by making sure that even if a baby is unplanned, it won’t be unwanted
Editor's note: This article was published at the Washington Examiner and is reprinted with permission. Watch the video of the Unplanned Movie Scholarship presentation HERE. Heartbeat International manages Pregnancy Help News.
