Later this week, Sony Pictures Classics will release the Sundance Film Festival flop, “Grandma.” The movie is yet another comedic spin on abortion, following on the heels of “Obvious Child,” “MOM BABY GOD,” and endless standup comedians’ shticks. Comedy has become the most common medium for portraying abortion in entertainment, but the approach is not working too well.
The movie chronicles the relationship between Elle (Lily Tomlin), an elderly has-been poet whose lover recently passed away, and her pregnant granddaughter, Sage (Julia Garner). Sage comes to Elle for money to undergo an abortion. Elle doesn’t have enough, so the pair go in search of the rest.
Out of one side of their mouths, abortion advocates militantly insist that abortion should be taken seriously – that the “right” to kill a preborn child is the most sacred commission of females, and out of the other side of their mouths, they claim that abortion is ‘no big deal’ – just a hiccup in the plan and a great opportunity for a zany road trip to raise abortion money. So, when the abortion agenda makes an ugly appearance in entertainment, the message is that abortion is funny.
Abortion activists are after a both-and that they can’t have, and that may be why their abortion comedies –even when they feature Hollywood legends like Lily Tomlin—fare poorly. There is unequivocally nothing funny about abortion. And Americans know this. Women know this – especially the ones who have experienced abortion first-hand.