There Is Nothing Funny About Abortion

There is nothing in the least bit funny about abortion. Not for the baby’s mother. Not for the baby’s father. Not for the abortion workers. And, above all, not for the baby, who is brutally terminated in the womb.

There is nothing funny about the remains of abortion (clinically called the “products of conception”). Nothing funny about the severed parts of tiny humans—little hands and little legs and little eyes. Nothing funny about Planned Parenthood making money off these dismembered babies.

There is nothing funny about the after-effects of abortion. Nothing funny about the grief and guilt experienced by many a mother (and father). Nothing funny about the women who are unable to conceive after an abortion. Nothing to laugh at all.

Yet in the midst of a vulgar, over-the-top “comedy” routine at the annual White House correspondents’ dinner, Michelle Wolf decided to joke about abortion.

This was beyond tasteless. Beyond crass. It almost beyond belief.

Speaking of Vice President Pence, she said that he is “very anti-choice. He thinks abortion is murder, which, first of all, don’t knock it ’til you try it—and when you do try it, really knock it. You know, you’ve got to get that baby out of there. And yeah, sure, you can groan all you want. I know a lot of you are very anti-abortion. You know, unless it’s the one you got for your secret mistress.”

Perhaps Wolf was right to raise the issue of hypocrisy. There have been conservative politicians who allegedly urged their mistress to have an abortion. Perhaps some corrupt preachers have done the same.

But to joke about abortion itself. To joke about using violent means to dislodge a little baby from its mother’s womb—how does one respond to this? To repeat her words: “when you do try it, really knock it. You know, you’ve got to get that baby out of there.”

How would we respond if she decided to joke about the Holocaust? “You better get those ovens super hot! There are a whole lot of Jewish bodies to burn!”

How would we respond if she decided to joke about slavery? “How many Africans can you cram into the belly of a ship? Don’t worry about overcrowding. You can toss the extras overboard!”

How would we respond if she decided to joke about human trafficking? “You know why selling people is so much better than selling drugs? You can only sell drugs once.”

We would be horrified with such “jokes.” From the left to the right, we would say, “Off limits! There’s nothing to laugh about here.”

And anyone who was idiotic enough to crack such “jokes” would be universally panned, if not banned.

Why, then, is it OK to joke about abortion? About a decision that is terribly painful for many mothers to make. About a gruesome procedure that slices up or burns up or sucks out a helpless human being from the sanctuary of its mother’s belly.

Wolf has been rightly criticized for her savage attack on Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. But Ben Shapiro was correct to tweet: “The worst part of Michelle Wolf’s garbage performance last night wasn’t her nasty riff on Huckabee Sanders. It was that dumpster fire abortion joke. But few were as offended by her literally celebrating baby killing as they were by her knocking eye shadow.”

One of the side-effects of abortion is that it desensitizes a culture. As Mother Teresa famously said, “Abortion kills twice. It kills the body of the baby and it kills the conscience of the mother.” And it kills the conscience of the nation.

If you wanted any proof for that, look no farther than the White House correspondents’ dinner, where a comedian thought it funny to crack a joke about abortion on live national TV. And look no farther than the widescale absence of outrage on the left in response to her “joke.”

Personally, I would love to see the day when Michelle Wolf becomes a passionate pro-life ally. She wouldn’t be the first to make a radical turn.

But for the moment, what we have is shame and woe. Shame for aborting more than 55 million babies. Disgrace for mocking their agony.