Last year the ABC gave us the glorious gift that is The Letdown. I reviewed it at the time, but let me remind you now just how clever and brilliant this series is. Sure, there are plenty of shows about motherhood, but this one is different somehow.

If you’re a mum it’s funny in the most relatable way. All mums have longed for our child to sleep, begged for a short break from our child, lamented the changes to our bodies, and more. The show takes these things next level, a kind of charicature of motherhood, but like all charicature the exaggerated features don’t make the subject any less recognisable.

It’s also heartbreaking. Every episode has a moment that kicks you in the guts unexpectedly. Which is also a relatable part of motherhood. The good moments outweigh the bad, but sometimes the bad is really hard and you feel like it might break you.

This week The Letdown came back for season two, and it’s still packing a punch. What’s more, it’s so relevant to what’s happening around the world and it’s exactly what we need right now.

From here on there’s spoilers, so you’ve been warned.

At the end of season two we saw Audrey hit with two bombshells. Her partners job is sending him to Adelaide, and she’s unexpectedly pregnant again. “We’re going to have two under two in Adelaide” she laments before burying her head in her hands.

The show kindly gave us a quick recap at the beginning to remind us, amongst other things, that baby Stevie was born via emergency c-section, and they very nearly lost her.

The first episode of season two is centred around Stevie’s first birthday party, where Audrey’s best efforts to keep the treats sugar free causes a hilarious mishap with the cake. At the party we notice Audrey’s reaction is just a little off when one of her friends from mother’s group announces she’s expecting another baby.

Then comes the kick in the guts.

Audrey and her partner Jeremy have to talk about the harsh reality of their situation. It’s too soon for her to be pregnant again after her particularly difficult c-section. They might be fine and have another healthy baby, but there’s the very real risk she could have a uterine rupture, which is potentially fatal.

Later Audrey asks “did we make the right decision?”

They never actually say it, but it’s clear what has happened. Like so many others they have made the informed decision to terminate a pregnancy.

This is the reality of abortion. It’s not always promiscuous girls who should have put a quarter between their knees, as many conservatives would have you believe. It’s not an easy decision, there may be doubts, but like having your gallbladder or your appendix removes, sometimes having a pregnancy terminated is a very necessary decision for a person’s health. And it’s so necessary that we see this reality on our screens instead of the dramatised Home & Away version, so that we can have a real conversation about abortion.

In Georgia, Alabama, Kansas and many more states in the US following suit, Audrey would have been forced to carry that pregnancy to term at the risk to her own life. Yes Audrey is fictional, but we know this fiction is derived from real life.

Don’t tell yourself it’s only in America, because it’s not. There are other countries with similar laws, and America has imposed a gag law on many countries that rely on them for healthcare funding.

Not only that, abortion is still criminalised in several Australian states, and with our newly elected Pentacostal prime minister promising religious freedom laws (that we don’t need) we could well be next.

Abortion is healthcare, plain and simple, and I absolutely applaud the ABC for showing us what it really looks like.