Stanek weekend question I: Why should abortion be funny?
We’ve discussed before that the liberal culture is attempting to destigmatize abortion by making jokes about it.
Already, apparently, we are to the point where if we “anti-choice nutjobs” don’t laugh along with the joke we have “terrible senses of humor.”
Earlier this year comedienne Chelsea Handler told Rosie O’Donnell about her coerced abortion at age 16 by parents with the same attitude as Barack Obama, not wanting their daughter to be punished with their grandchild:
(“And, of course, I have no regret at all.” Why “of course”?)
Flash forward and Handler, now age 37, has never married and has living no children.
When Handler appeared on Conan O’Brien’s show on October 31, she gave more detail. Her baby would have been 20 years old now and was half black. She reiterated, as she did on the Rosie show, that the abortion was best for her, but she suddenly began laughing, inexplicable even to her. WARNING: crude…
As an aside, I notice Handler knew exactly how old her child would be.
At any rate, Jezebel (WARNING: more crudeness) took issue with the fact some people (assumed to be pro-lifers, although that fact isn’t known – meaning if you’re pro-abortion you’d better think abortion is funny or consider yourself uncool) didn’t think the topic of abortion was very humorous:
In response, anti-choice social media users demonstrated their endless capacity to flip the f*** out.
Guys, can we talk? We feminists totes had the market cornered on dour humorlessness until all these screechy anti-abortion rights people started copping our steez. Can you be cooler or something?
So the question is, why does the other side want so much for abortion to be a cavalier thing?
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
Yes, I too find it interesting that Chelsea knew how old HER child would be, the child she aborted and did not want because it was BEST for HER! I was reading an e-article (I think on the NY Times url) about Charlene Yoest, a pro-life advocate whose very successful stance was to approach anti-abortion laws in respect to the harm and damage to the mother. I made a comment applauding her for her focus not only on the preborn child but also on the health and welfare of the mom. Oh my goodness, you would have thought I called for the beheading St. Teresa! We are at a tipping point. If the conservative right does not win this election, I fear that our continual slide into the abyss will be a one-way trip, never to return. God have mercy on us.
She misses that child and that grief is hurting her. It will continue to Herut her more the Moore she tries to fight it and say it’s ok. Her heart knows it wasn’t ok. I pray she can find the healing she so obviously needs because then she will find real joy and be able to laugh freely at truly funny things. The taking of a life and laughing about it isn’t funny, it is sadistic.
I am old enough to remember the dehumanizing “humor” of nigger jokes, pollack jokes, retard jokes. If there was any good contribution from the culture of political correctness, it was this: Racist and sexist jokes are not funny anymore. We see the cruelty now.
Abortion jokes dehumanize the child and trivialize the pain of the mother. And that’s why nobody laughs. Even pro-aborts are trained to not laugh at cruelty.
Let me put it this way: Abortion jokes will be funny when single-mommy jokes become funny. When we can laugh at the suffering women and children endure because of our licentious culture.
Conan O’Brien was clearly shocked and had no idea how to respond. Which is a pretty normal response to someone telling you she killed her kid.
Pro-aborts often accuse pro-lifers, bizarrely, of not understanding how difficult a choice abortion is for women. They claim we shouldn’t protest clinics and “harass” women who are going through one of the worst days of their lives. And that pro-lifers don’t get that no woman just strolls happily into an abortion clinic, etc. etc. Of course, the obvious question is, if abortion is just a normal surgery, why do pro-aborts consider it so “difficult” and emotionally painful?
And then we have other pro-aborts claiming abortion is no big deal, and even joking about it. This also is a losing strategy because lots of pro-choice women get offended by it, even if they think their abortion was the right choice for them. Not to mention alienating the normal public, who like Conan O’Brien, find abortion jokes very awkward.
So it makes no sense for them to treat abortion as a serious manner OR in a humorous manner. Just one more reason the “pro-choice” movement is a logical mess.
Now that I have watched the video:
I have managed to ignore Chelsea Handler. Never heard of her, except the mention of her name on pro-life blogs.
It is always heart-breaking when abortion takes on the face of a woman who is still suffering, 20 years later. She hides her pain behind laughter…. better than in drugs or alcohol or other abuse, I suppose. But still heart-breaking.
She was only 16 — too young to know what the cost would be. Too scared to do much more than blindly obey her parents. Now she has no husband, no children, and a neurotically nervous laugh.
I find it interesting that people who will vehemently deny cosmetic surgery, as if it isn’t obvious, yet will proudly proclaim their abortions, alcohol and drug abuse, affairs, mental health issues, rehab visits, etc.
Handler did not have to mention her abortion, so why did she? I find it suspicious when people share personal info that no one asked them about, especially when its to millions of viewers. Also when people dwell on how ”happy” they are with their decision or life course. Are they trying to convince everyone else, or themselves?
Abortion isn’t funny, but neither is Chelsea Handler, so it all makes sense.
I think Chelsea Handler used to be pretty funny. Her first book was hilarious. She’s become less and less amusing to me since though.
Comedians will always make jokes about controversial or taboo topics, this is not new, nor surprising. Abortion isn’t unique in this regard. I do think that Jezebel and other pro-choice feminists want to normalize abortion humor as a way to destigmatize it though. They do the opposite with rape jokes because they want rape to be taken as the serious issue that it is. They don’t want abortion to be taken seriously except as a legal right.
I think that you’re definitely packing some serious heat.
Yet prolifers are accused of being the sexist ones.
I’m just thinking of me having a half-black and half-white child and that would have been funny.
Yet prolifers are accused of being the racist ones.
She seems to have reduced herself and everyone around her to body parts to be joked about or humans to be disposed of.
SM, I love your term logical mess. It reminds me of the term “prochoice” Christian.
I think that you’re definitely packing some serious heat.
Yet prolifers are accused of being the sexist ones.
I’m just thinking of me having a half-black and half-white child and that would have been funny.
Yet prolifers are accused of being the racist ones.
She seems to have reduced herself and everyone around her to body parts to be joked about or humans to be disposed of.
SM, I love your term, logical mess. It reminds me of the term “prochoice” Christian.
Geez imagine her with a 20y/o, and half black as well!
Do these enlightened liberals ever listen to themselves?
copping our steez.
I’m not even going to look up what this means. I’m proud to not understand what the heck these folks are desperately trying to communicate.
If it makes me uncool in their eyes to disagree with killing innocent humans, so be it. As far as I’m concerned, they are nuttier than a port-a-potty at a peanut festival. I bet even they can understand that one.
It just means copying someone’s style, Praxedes.
Jack, I agree with you. I remember her being very funny once upon a time but her dry sarcastic humor now has become grating. She is so cynical she isn’t even funny anymore!
I thought the SAME THING when she knew how old her child would be. Funny how she didn’t have to stop and do the math. SHE KNEW. And I notice my post-abortive friends who claim to have made the “right choice” can tell you how old their babies are too. I KNOW every year on the would be birthday they make another chalk mark on the walls of their mind.
It just means copying someone’s style, Praxedes.
Dang it all, Jack. Now I know and might start becoming cool again. I figured I was past the cool stage. I still use groovy and gag me with a spoon but maybe it’s time to replace those. (:
If she was laughing (inexplicably), it may have been “nervous” laughter, often a reaction to an uncomfortable (emotional) situation.It may have just “hit” her when she started talking about it. She’s well known to be a drinker. Why do you think she drinks so much? She ‘s trying to “drown” her conscience…whether she realizes it or not.
Wow!! How sick it that? She has “no problem with her abortion” but spills her guts out to millions of people on a comedy show unsolicited when Conan just ask her about her childhood, giving out “too much information” about herself, tells the world that she murdered what may be the only child she will ever have, shows off her racial bigotry about having a “half black” child and then giggles uncontrollably to cover up her schizo mentally. And we prolifers are crazy and radical?
I don’t see how abortion is funny, but I really don’t get why the fact that her child would have been mixed race makes it MOAR HIGH-LARIOUS!!! I don’t understand what the race of this child has to do with anything at all.
Here is how enlightened we liberals are: a huge motivation for the abortion was that the parents did not want to have the reflection upon THEM that their daughter ‘slept with’ a negro.
There would be no way to mistake this, with fair Chelsea’s genetics.
I have heard this racial issue as a reason, from a pro-life person here or tere, for the “rape” exception – what if one of our pure-as-the-driven -snow-white females was sullied by the miscegeny.
Just another parallel between slavery and abortion, as human rights and civil rights issues.
We can deny it if we like, but if you watch her show, you will see that a running gag is making fun of a Hispanic guy for being Hispanic - as clever and original as Jimmy Kimmel – see? We liberals can see the world thru racist eyes, and declare we are noble, and it is YOU who is intolerant when you don’t have our sense of (racist) humor.
Chelsea’s life style may be larpty related to the influence of a regrettable abortion, or just to lousy parenting, with the early sexual activity just a symptom of that.
Hi Last Democrat,
I well remember the racist stereotypes where rape was concerned. It usually involved the fair white maiden ravaged by “a n——” or a “drunken Indian”. How could one not support aborting the product of something so repulsive? Apparently being assaulted by a white man isn’t quite so bad. A previous poster pointed out to me that it was in fact Native women at greater risk of rape from white men.
I’m sorry I have no source but I do recall reading years ago how a local medical society, trying to legalize abortion, asking the governor how he would feel about a white woman fertilized by a black rapist. I don’t recall any similar “concern” for black, native, or hispanic victims for white rapists, or any rapists.
I’m just thinking of me having a half-black and half-white child and that would have been funny.
You’d think Obama would be all over this considering his parentage.
What the heck am I saying? . . . . . . . Somebody throw some water at me please.
Here is how enlightened we liberals are: a huge motivation for the abortion was that the parents did not want to have the reflection upon THEM that their daughter ‘slept with’ a negro.
negro? Um that hasn’t been used since 1965.
Geez imagine her with a 20y/o, and half black as well!
Do these enlightened liberals ever listen to themselves?
Nope. I have found that many so-called “liberals” are in fact quite racist. BTW, I have two half black kids and last time I checked, they were doing just fine. And I am all black and I’m doing okay, too. It’s really not that bad, Chelsea, in fact I rather like it!
The real tragedy of people like her is that there are millions of people that think this is good stuff.
We Christians must not be doing our job in reaching the lost.
Is it really so hard to believe women when they say they are not suffering from emotional fallout from their abortions? I believe women when they say they are suffering or are going through pain that can be traced back to their abortions. What’s so hard about believing a woman when she says it was a decision that doesn’t haunt her? Whenever I read pro-life blogs, I am amazed by how many people just don’t believe women who have a different way of seeing the world than they do. It’s all about how they must be lying, or are deceived, or are in denial. Is it really that hard to believe that for some perfectly normal, psychologically healthy women, a past abortion is simply not that big of a deal?
Ella Rae, since most women who abort report some kind of coercion, yes it is hard to believe that abortion is no big deal to a normal woman.
Since abortion is associated with increased suicide rate, and increased overall mortality rates for women over the next 10 years, it’s hard to believe that normal women think it’s no big deal.
Since other cultures have developed rituals to address the discomfort of mothers who have abortions, it’s difficult to believe that it’s normal to think of killing one’s baby prior to birth as no big deal.
Since pro-lifers provide the grief counseling for women who abort (the abortion clinics don’t) we’re pretty certain that it’s normal to have grief after abortion, and that it is a big deal.
Ellie Rae: It’s called a seared conscience. Google the term, you might learn something.
Question: “What does it mean to have a seared conscience?”
Answer: The seared conscience is referred to in 1 Timothy 4:2 where Paul talks about those whose consciences—their moral consciousness—have been literally “cauterized” or rendered insensitive in the same way the hide of an animal scarred with a branding iron becomes numb to further pain. For human beings, having one’s conscience seared is a result of continual, unrepentant sinning. Eventually, sin dulls the sense of moral right or wrong, and the unrepentant sinner becomes numb to the warnings of the conscience that God has placed within each of us to guide us (Romans 2:15).
At the point of salvation, we are cleansed from the sin inherited from Adam and all personal sins. But as we continue in our Christian walk, we are still prone to sin. When we do, God has provided us with a bar of soap to restore us to the point of salvation. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). When we allow ourselves to practice mental attitude sins, we are quenching the Holy Spirit. We are commanded not to quench the Holy Spirit who indwells us (1Thessalonians 5:19). When we continue in our mental attitude sins without confessing and begin to practice these sins in our bodies (James 1:15), we grieve the Holy Spirit, which we are not to do (Ephesians 4:30). Once again, we have the choice to confess and repent or to continue in sin and backsliding. When we continue in sin, our souls begin to become morally callous. We finally come to a point where our conscience is seared and is unable to help us determine right from wrong. It is as if a hot iron was applied to our conscience and it is destroyed. Even worse, we don’t care how sinful we are. This is what is meant in 1Timothy 4:2, where Paul is referring to false teachers: “Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.” You can easily see this with pure evil. A serial killer, for example, has had his conscience seared, and it no longer operates and guides him in what is right and what is wrong.
Christians who keep sinning despite divine discipline can actually sin themselves right out of this life and into God’s presence. God does this in order to keep such a one from doing any more damage to himself and to his witness for His Holy Name. “If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that he should pray about that. All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death” (1 John 5:16-17). These sins do not cause us to lose our salvation, but they definitely affect our relationship with God and others. We are wise if we never deteriorate to the point of having our consciences seared.
Abortion is not funny. It’s just not.
Hey, Chelsea–want to hear something funny about abortion?
The abortion center where I used to work (before becoming pro-life) kept a 10-week-old intact fetus in a jar of formalin in the lab fridge! We called him Charlie! How funny is that!?!
Or how about the time the power was out and someone opened the freezer where we kept the fetal remains and the most hideous odor wafted down the hallway and someone quipped, “At least they [the aborted babies] have better there in the freezer, at least THEY can’t smell it!” HA HA HILARIOUS, right?
Or how about the time the cleaning lady QUIT because she found a FOOT in the drain?
Are you laughing yet?
http://jewelsgreen.com/silent-witness-the-baby-in-the-jar/
Jewels, If you tell me Charlie was half black and half white, I will probably pee my pants from laughing so hard!!
You mean half black and half white… like Obama?
There are plenty of cold people in the world so yes, I believe there are many women who don’t regret their abortions.
Speaking of being cold now Debbie’s father is trying to get her to abort. Both he and her grandmother have even offered to pay for it. I told her to take the money and save it for the baby!
Phillymiss, I have been thinking about your family and I am really glad that they have you for support when it looks like Debbie’s family is nothing but pressure on her.
Hisman — thanks for posting that.
I have to correct the final paragraph: Sin is rebellion and rejection of God. Sin is that which damages our salvation. ”Mortal sin” (“sin that kills”) destroys salvation.
In the end, a person either chooses sin or chooses Christ. If a young man “makes a decision for Christ” and later falls back into sin, then he has fallen away from Christ. One cannot be a saved Christian and a mortal sinner at the same time. Salvation is not permanent, but must be lived every day — that’s why Paul urges us to guard our salvation “with fear and trembling.” It’s not easy work.
I just can’t imagine being so cynical that I can’t even believe someone when they tell me their own story.
My grandmother’s abortion haunted her for decades. Then again, it’s also the reason I’m alive.
I’ve had friends whose abortions were sad, but not devastating to them.
I guess I just believe people when they tell me their stories. Pushing my own diagnosis of a seared conscious or some sort of post-abortion syndrome on them just doesn’t seem to accomplish anything except make me doubt everybody.
Yeah, I hear ya Ella. I’ve had friends whose wart removals were sad, but not devastating to them.
Mary there is still a high rate of sexual violence against Native women, both on and off the reservation.
Jack, thank you for your kind words. I feel a sort of kinship with you because it seem like we both survived pretty abusive childhoods – you know, the kind abortion woukd have “saved” us from.
So Del, have you stopped sinning yet? Just askin’.
I haven’t, just being honest. Paul didn’t either and thanked God for Christ.
The fear of losing one’s salvation keeps one in bondage and is contrary to faith. Perhaps you’re talking about willful sin as described in the Book of Hebrews?
Ella,
please explain:
How is your grandmother’s abortion the reason you’re alive? I’m cynical, primarily about that part. I’ve had people tell me that if their moms hadn’t aborted their older siblings, they’d never have been born, and their mom would still be with the crappy dad who was their older sibling’s father. I don’t believe that for a second, since I have two children who have a crappy biological father, yet still left the abusive jerkwad and am now with a wonderful man who I want very desperately to have children with and who wants to have children with me very badly as well (and we fully plan on doing so as soon as we are able!). So, cynical I am. I really, wholeheartedly believe that sort of thing is just something people tell themselves to set themselves at ease when dealing with a parent (or grandparent, in your case) who killed a family member. It’s not true. That family member’s death was not the necessity you’ve convinced yourself it is. It’s just an excuse. Abortions usually involve some sort of excuse. “I *had* to!”
No. You really didn’t. I know you didn’t, because I’ve been there.
Pharmer do you have any links to articles stating that most abortions are coerced? I think some are but the majority are not. Why can’t prolifers accept that?
xalisae says:
November 5, 2012 at 1:05 am
Ella,please explain:How is your grandmother’s abortion the reason you’re alive?
(Denise) It is possible that the conception that led to this person’s birth occurred during the time period in which, had that woman NOT aborted, she would have been pregnant with the 1st one and, thus, unable to conceive.
This is a game everyone can endlessly play. For example, every single person on the planet probably has an ancestor who is the product of a rape conception. Thus, all of us owe our existence to a rape. Similarly, we probably are all the results of adultery, prostitution, etc.
Yes, we can all play the what-did-Ella-mean-when-she-said-blank game endlessly Denise. Ella can actually answer the question, which is, I suspect, why xalisae asked it of her.
Alice says:
November 5, 2012 at 10:08 am
Yes, we can all play the what-did-Ella-mean-when-she-said-blank game endlessly Denise. Ella can actually answer the question, which is, I suspect, why xalisae asked it of her.
(Denise) I was just pointing out that every human being on the planet owes his or her existence to a lot of what we consider evil. Rape is in everyone’s background as is adultery, prostitution, etc. We wouldn’t be here unless someone back there miscarried and got pregnant with our particular ancestor and so forth.
several observations: the episode ran on Halloween – how appropos.
Secondly the movie she’s in is another typical “mother acts like teenage kid while daughter picks up the pieces” which disses the thousands of single moms who like me, work their asses off raising great kids and who don’t date and haven’t dated in years because we are too busy taking care of business.
Yet another shot a “Catholic school girls” because the white blouse and plaid kilt are THE uniform of Catholic schools and we all know how trashy Catholic girls are…
She thought the fact that her being the parent to a 20 year old was funny. Actually she is the parent of a 20 year – who happens to be dead from abortion.
Finally, so glad I don’t have a TV and therefore, can’t watch the trash that Conan O’Brien dishes. :)
If it wasn’t a big deal and they’re over it, why are they still talking about it twenty years later, much less volunteering information nobody has asked for? It’s not that hard to put two and two together there. When something is on a person’s mind and “wants” to come out it will come out eventually. I think one of Chesterton’s brilliant observations went, “Psychoanalysis is confession without absolution.” I wonder what he would say about the talk show.
I’m happy to explain. Without abortion, my grandmother could not physically have become pregnant with my mother. That’s not an argument I hold FOR abortion being a good thing. It’s just factual. It’s kind of how I don’t like the whole, “What if the person who is supposed to invent the cure for cancer WAS ABORTED!?” argument. It just goes back forever, cyclically and pointlessly.
I include it in order to make a point that I recognize when abortion is a tragic story, EVEN WHEN that abortion benefited me by allowing me, eventually, to exist. If I can so easily stake my own existence to abortion, shouldn’t I feel obligated to defend it? Of course not. I can trust that my grandmother’s abortion was tragic and sad. Supporting abortion and viewing some abortions as truly tragic is not incompatible.
Neither is opposing abortion and recognizing that some abortions are NOT tragic for the women involved. You are within your ethical framework to argue that it is always tragic for the fetus, and I credit you with that adherence to principle. But it seems silly to constantly look for reasons not to believe women when they share their stories/experiences.
I can’t imagine thinking everyone on one side of an issue was either deluded, deceived, or lying.
That’s bullocks. Your parent could’ve still been, only (perhaps?) a little different due to being conceived at a different time under different circumstances. Pinning your existence on a dead aunt or uncle sounds like it’s merely a crappy coping mechanism.
I believe the stories. There are some really sad stories surrounding abortion, but all the hand-wringing in the world won’t erase the fact that most abortions are done on healthy babies that were not conceived from rape or incest, and most are done for social reasons. It’s not PC to say so, but there is a great deal of selfishness surrounding this issue. For many women and their partners, ITS ALL ABOUT ME!
As mother Teresa said, “it is a terrible poverty to abort a child so that you may live as you wish.”
See, you don’t even believe MY story. You have to make up that I need some sort of coping mechanism. Did you even read what I wrote?
Yeah, I did. That’s how I was able to determine that it’s crap. Killing your family member didn’t *POOF* you into existence. You all could’ve lived, just within a different time frame.
Sometimes I think you are being purposefully obtuse, Xalisae.
I will rephrase my point one final time: My grandmother had an abortion. That allowed her to become pregnant with my mother, who eventually became pregnant with me. And yet that fact does not have any bearing on whether or not I am pro-choice, because to rely on such convoluted logic would be absurd.
When someone asks, “But what if your mother had aborted YOU? Or what if so-and-so’s mother had aborted THEM? What would the world be like THEN, huh?” they are depending on the exact same logic.
And the logic is flawed.
I am saying that if I can hold two concepts in my head at once without any difficulty–that I support people’s right to choose AND I wish my own grandmother hadn’t felt forced to make that decision–why can’t pro-lifers hold two thoughts in their heads at once? Why isn’t it possible to believe that a fetus is a person who is lost tragically to abortion AND that women aren’t lying when some of them they say they are unscathed by the experience?
Pro-lifers are constantly left scrambling in response to positive pro-choice stories (which I don’t necessarily think Chelsea Handler represents, but anyway…) because they want to explain away these women who are not scarred or devastated by their experiences with abortion. You insist that everyone has a seared conscience or is in denial or is affected by demons or just hasn’t come to terms with it yet or is obsessed or is depressed or blah, blah, blah.
And it just doesn’t add up.
Just believe people.
When someone says, “I had an abortion and I’m fine,” go ahead and continue to believe that there was a tragedy that took place. Continue to fight against that tragedy from happening again. But don’t lose all of your integrity by insisting that everyone on the opposing side from you is lying or in denial.
Pro-lifers would get a lot farther if, upon hearing these stories, they simply said, “I still believe a tragedy took place when you had an abortion, but I’m so glad that you’re doing okay. If you ever do need help or begin to suffer from regret or depression related to your abortion, please come to me.”
That’s a heck of a lot better of an answer than, “You’re a liar and you’re in denial and every problem in your life can be traced back to the fact that you had an abortion.”
But I’m not glad they’re doing okay. A mother shouldn’t be able to kill her child then just casually skip away as if nothing happened. No parent should be able to do so. That’s psychotic. I’m not saying there aren’t plenty of women capable of doing this. I’m just saying it’s not good that they can, and I’m trying to give people the benefit of the doubt rather than accept that they are cold and heartless pscyho killers of their own children.