An adoption movie is just what crisis pregnancy centres need

The arrival of the movie Lifemark in theatres at this moment feels like a God thing. I went to see it because some friends were going, so we had a mom's movie night out. However, the story struck me particularly after spending the last month talking with local pregnancy centres.

Lifemark is based on the true story of an 18-year-old who meets his birth mom. It was in the works well before the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision on Roe v. Wade, so God definitely timed it well.

The movie matters because it tells stories. People can argue with facts or with morals, but you can't argue with stories. Lifemark highlights exactly why this is such an issue today, without being political, while putting some faces to some of the questions and concerns around the issue of abortion.

For example:

• David is the baby who gets adopted. He knows he's adopted but doesn't like to talk about it. His parents are very supportive of his choice to reach out to his birth parents. It's hinted that he might want to do this for medical reasons due to a medical incident at the beginning of the movie. He has some doubts, some ups and downs, which are typical of an 18-year-old boy, but he also repeatedly expresses his gratitude to his birth parents for giving him his adoptive family and the wonderful life he has had in a close family.
• Melissa is the birth mom. She's 18 when she gets pregnant and she's not ready to have a baby; her boyfriend says several times he's not ready to be a father. We see her going through the process of choosing an adoptive family for her baby, giving up her baby (in tears), and later telling her son how she actually had an appointment to get an abortion and walked out before the procedure started, describing what it was like.
• Brian is the birth dad. His mother had been adopted and it was a negative experience for her, which helps explain his not wanting to give up his own son up for adoption and why he has kept it a complete secret until he is contacted by the boy at age 18.
• Jimmy and Susan are David’s adoptive parents. They lost two babies at a very young age to congenital defects. They have applied for adoption, only to have the birth mother change her mind at the last moment and keep a baby. After all those losses Susan doesn’t want to get hurt again. She is ready to give up. Her husband wants to give it another try. Their story highlights some of the reasons couples choose adoption and how difficult adoption can be.
• Nate is David's best friend who provides comic relief by videoing everything that happens in his friend’s life. (He's also the creator of the original documentary I Lived on Parker Street that inspired this movie.) At the end of the film he finds out his sister Reese is pregnant by her "idiot" boyfriend. David asks for a chance to talk to Reese about his own experience of adoption and finding out his mom almost aborted him. We’re left uncertain about Reese’s decision.

Despite some weak acting and scenes that could have flowed better, Landmark is a good film and should spur some conversations around this important topic. At the end of the movie the filmmakers take part in a discussion on the importance of the movie to them individually. Executive producer Kirk Cameron, who plays Jimmy, tells us that he's an adoptive dad of four of his six children, while the film’s talent coach, Shari Rigby, shares that she had abortion.

Lifemark opened in theatres just as I was finishing my stories about pregnancy care centres. And it answers the question at the core of the important issue: What sort of girl walks into a pregnancy care centre? A girl like Melissa or Reese.

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