Viral TikTok video shows teen girls celebrating, laughing during an abortion
A TikTok video that has gone viral on social media shows two teen girls entering a Planned Parenthood, one of which appears celebratory as she is about to undergo an abortion.
The video features a girl named Ashley that shows her stomach while the videographer holds Ashley’s positive pregnancy test. The video is titled “Abortion time! Take 2,” which implies this is her second abortion.
The two girls are seen approaching and then inside a Planned Parenthood facility in Pasadena, California, and Ashley is dancing. Another couple is also in the clinic but clearly unhappy to be there.
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"There’s two abortion moods” the video is captioned, contrasting a dancing Ashley with the gloomy couple. The video ends showing an ultrasound image of Ashley’s unborn child, presumably moments before the abortion procedure, as she laughs along with her friend filming her.
The TikTok video received hundreds of thousands of likes and thousands of comments and has been viewed millions of times.
Commenting on the video, Lila Rose, founder of the pro-life investigative outfit Live Action, was aghast.
"Our ability to be cruel is endless. When society celebrates abortion, should we be surprised to see this kind of cruelty? My heart breaks for this little helpless baby, killed on camera, his young mother joking about it. And it breaks for her, who will live with this all her life," Rose tweeted Thursday.
The Federalist reported Thursday that TikTok had previously barred Live Action for allegedly violating their user rules. The video celebrating abortion was permitted, despite violating several guidelines such as "violent content, depictions of death, and dismembered humans," Rose noted.
Supporters of abortion rights have in recent years made a concerted effort to destigmatize the practice of abortion, presenting it as normal. Advocacy groups have often employed the hashtag #ShoutYourAbortion.
At the 2016 Democratic National Convention, Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, proclaimed to applause that she had an abortion and presented it as a noble decision.
Business Insider noted Saturday that abortion is a considerably popular subject for content on TikTok, "with videos under the #abortion and #prolife tags racking up more than 70 million views each, most likely because the platform offers a wide array of ways users can comment their opinions on the matter."
"Some videos are similarly humorous takes on teenage girls going to Planned Parenthood for the procedures. One is set to one of the platform's popular sounds that begins with horn music before audio can be heard saying 'a child...no.'"
Launched in 2017, TikTok is a video-sharing social networking service that is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company that was founded in 2012, and is used to make brief comedy and talent videos, often involving lip-syncing.
