On Saturday Night Live last week, in a sketch featuring “Goober the Clown,” Cecily Strong ridiculed Texas’ heartbeat law. Strong told her abortion story using “fun clown stuff” like balloon animals, a squirting flower, and a clown costume. The intent, I think, was to portray abortion as no big deal, not as dark and scary as it’s made out to be, and to suggest that women shouldn’t be forced to talk about it.

But the sketch came across awkward and sad. Perhaps Strong’s parody was actually rooted in her own deep pain. But if it’s really no big deal, why wouldn’t people be more excited about the freedom abortion supposedly brings? 

Perhaps the pain so many women feel after abortion isn’t just from social stigma or new laws, but because of what abortion is: an act of violence perpetrated on both mother and child… which is why abortion is no laughing matter.