Joking about abortion is nothing new for Chris Rock. In a 2004 TV special, “Never Scared,” the comedian praised the fact abortion was lawful in America, saying: “It’s beautiful that abortion’s legal, man. I love going to abortion rallies to pick up women.”
Still rebounding from the now infamous Will Smith slap at the 2022 Academy Awards, Rock has garnered attention for the abortion jokes he made in his new Netflix comedy special, “Selective Outrage.” The remarks have drawn comments and criticism from figures as diverse as Live Action’s Lila Rose to the Los Angeles Lakers legend Shaquille O’Neal.
Rock begins his segment on abortion with a statement that, had it been shared on Twitter, would have been identified as “misinformation.”
“In most of the country abortion’s illegal,” Rock said — though, tragically, throughout most of the country, abortion remains legal. In fact, the Guttmacher Institute, which advocates for abortion policy, reports that only 14 states have laws that the research institute identifies as “very restrictive” or “mostly restrictive.”
Rock then proceeds to get about as crass on the topic as you might expect from a Hollywood comedian. “Hey, I’ve paid for more abortions than any woman in this room,” Rock continued. “When I go to the clinic, I say, ‘Gimme the usual.'” Men, he said, can talk about abortion because they do their part by financing them.
Irish actor Ciaran Hinds is credited with saying: “In good comedy, the structure comes from truth and that weird eye that looks at the way life is.” Keep that in mind as you read this next line.
“I believe that women should have the right to kill babies,” he declared. “But let’s not get it twisted, it is killing a baby. ‘Cause whenever I pay for an abortion, I request a dead baby.”
Now, we are not saying that Rock’s appalling comments on abortion constitute “good comedy.” But there is something about those comments that is undeniably true.
“Sometimes, I call up the doctor like a hit man: ‘Is it done?'” the comedian said. In these words, we hear a profound truth ring: Abortion is murder, and an abortionist is a hired man. Pope Francis has said much the same. Arguing that abortion is never the answer, Pope Francis has said, “Is it licit to hire a hitman to resolve a problem?”
Is Chris Rock really joking? Despite his assertions that he is pro-choice, is he really waving his pro-life flag by bearing the truth for all to see?
Who knows? Art and artists are fickle about the truth. But there’s no denying that, through his shocking routine, the evil of abortion is made crystal clear. Abortion is the intentional, routine killing of an unborn baby, full stop. And Rock, intentionally or otherwise, leaves its supporters without their lifeboats of twisted obfuscations.
Rock’s sketch even goes so far as to unwind the entire “logic” of the pro-choice argument. Asking why we should stop at even the third trimester, Rock provocatively declared abortion should be legal through the first semester of school, quipping “I think you should be able to kill a baby till you get that first report card.”
Truth: If it’s legal to take the life of a preborn child, why not a preschooler?
In another performance, years earlier, Rock joked that women decide frivolously to keep their children or terminate their pregnancies based on whether they think the father is handsome or if they need to fit into a swimsuit for an upcoming vacation. “They have a little abortion tribunal, and they vote on the baby like it’s ‘Survivor,'” Rock said.
By abandoning the once dogmatic axiom that abortion should be “safe, legal and rare,” proponents have turned abortion into an expression of liberty. And as such, abortion advocates have tossed off their once-solemn refrain that abortion was the last refuge of women in need. Today’s rallying cry for abortion on demand is a far cry from the abortion policy of the past. No longer is abortion a regrettable “necessity”; it must be “shouted” and celebrated.
Wittingly or not, Rock puts his audience face to face with the cold, brutal truth about abortion.
These are the types of frank discussions that need to take place between pro-lifers and supporters of abortion in order for progress to be made, because it strips away the common misdirections — and misconceptions — about the abortion debate. Too often, conversations get caught up in issues of viability, when a heartbeat begins, when an unborn child can feel pain, and the like. But science is clear that a new human person is formed at conception. When we can acknowledge that this science is irrefutable, that unborn babies are fully human — as Chris Rock did — we can have a truly honest conversation about abortion that isn’t cloaked in the cipher of a comedy routine.
Our Sunday Visitor Editorial Board: Father Patrick Briscoe, Gretchen R. Crowe, Scott P. Richert, Scott Warden, York Young
