Admittedly, they gave themselves and the audience an ‘out’ by making the girl pregnant via rape, but most of the characters were unaware of that fact. So while the context was one of those ‘exception’ abortions even many anti-choicers are okay with, most of the dialogue and events regarding the abortion were assuming that the young woman in question was pregnant via consensual sex.

Because she didn’t want to talk about it, and she sure as hell didn’t want to reveal something even more traumatic to family members she wasn’t close to, and who were being judgmental like whoa re: her pregnancy and plans to abort. And her decision to keep the specifics of the situation to herself was presented as perfectly reasonable (and possibly as a re-assertion of control over her own life). She hadn’t wanted anybody to know she was pregnant, it got out anyway and led to all kinds of drama, and the last thing she wanted was to lose even more of her privacy and autonomy by being forced to talk about the rape to hostile people as a way of justifying her desire for an abortion. As I recall, after the pregnancy became public knowledge, a platonic male friend (who was one of the few people who did know about her having been raped) claimed to be the father, because he knew damn well she didn’t want to talk about it.

And the anti-choice characters were by and large portrayed as judgmental slut-shamers rather than people who were all about the baybeez. Maybe an anti-choice person could watch that story and maintain their notion that abortion after rape is ‘different’, and the girl’s parents and other anti-choicers would have been justified in their condemnation if she had in fact become pregnant from consensual extramarital sex, but it’d take a fair bit of fast thinking. I mean, women seeking abortions don’t tattoo their reasoning on their foreheads.

And the girl’s sister was portrayed as a principled pro-lifer who was prepared to be flexible and compassionate when dealing with an actual person she loved wanting an abortion, as opposed to some theoretical stranger. They had a conversation which went roughly along the lines of, “I disagree with your decision, but it’s obvious I can’t talk you out of it. I love you, and I want to support you through this, regardless of my personal feelings on the subject.” And it was only after Big Sister decided not to be judgmental and guilt-trippy that Little Sister confided in her regarding the circumstances. The sequence of events was very much Big Sister proving herself trustworthy and prepared to respect her decision, and then Little Sister explaining, rather than Little Sister proving herself trustworthy and non-slutty by explaining the circumstances, and Big Sister then deciding that THIS abortion was different. And ironically enough, the parents who were yelling their heads off about the abortion would probably have felt rather better about it if they’d known, but it wasn’t their daughter’s job to make them feel better about it.

There was also a scene outside an abortion clinic in which protesters were portrayed as the howling mob of hyenas they usually are in real life (I’ve done clinic escorting in the past, and it was not fun). The scene was definitely written from the pregnant girl’s POV, with having to get past these loons being yet another ordeal.

And then another regular character just happened to be part of the group who were protesting (even though, if memory serves, there’d never been any mention before that ep or any mention after of him being someone who was into clinic protesting, but you know, soap opera). And he told off his buddies, presumably because seeing someone you know having abuse screamed at them is a lot harder to justify than some slut you’ve never met before and never will again. Now, that part was fairly fake, to my mind. His lecture about non-violence and non-hateful protest and hating the sin, not the sinner was kind of…sappy. Not to mention the implausibility of an obviously reality-based person having thought for five minutes that hanging out with clinic protesters would be a brilliant idea. But yeah, pretty unsympathetic portrayal of these people.

Far from a perfect storyline. I hated how suffering in the form of rape served as a way to ‘redeem’ a bad girl and turn her into a heroine. Ugh. But all in all, the abortion storyline was presented in a pretty damn pro-choice way. At times it was cringe-worthily Public Service Announcement about it. I recall the character having a conversation with a total stranger in the clinic waiting room in which the stranger reveals that her boyfriend is pressuring her to have an abortion and of course, the regular character gives her this big speech about how she has to make her own decisions (even though they’ve known each other all of ninety seconds and the woman then disappears into the black hole of day players). But I guess props to the writers for showing that being pro-choice doesn’t mean being pro-abortion except if that’s what the woman actually wants. I just wish they could’ve done it a little more subtly. Anvils to the head kind of hurt.

But all in all, pretty well done for network TV, and a pretty pro-choice view espoused by all the reality-based sympathetic characters, regardless of their personal feelings (i.e. Big Sister remains pro-life in principle but doesn’t insist she be allowed to dictate what happens to Little Sister’s uterus). Brutal portrayal of asshole anti-choicers in the form of the parents and the clinic protesters, but to my mind, not an inaccurate portrayal. And a great many reminders that not every woman who wants an abortion for a ‘good’ reason is willing to share her reasoning with strangers.

Well, considering the series has never been a ratings-grabber, I think most involved said this is the last season no matter what.

I didn’t mind the episode — it was clear from the start that they were conflicted about whether or not to get an abortion, and that if one of them had felt very strongly that she should abort, the other would have gone along with it. So I liked that it was shown as a question/conflict without an easy answer.

I also found it interesting that the woman who told the story about having an abortion when she was 19 is the currently pregnant mother of a 3-year-old. So much for, “Only women who hate babies get abortions.”

But I also forgive their sudden decision to have the kid because they were waiting to actually feel something one way or the other; seeing the baby made them feel like they could handle it, so they decided to.

That’s a good point. My problem is the idea that it had to be decided right then, forever, without allowing them time to think about it over a period of at least a few days; and that the moment of emotion there could override other serious considerations that just weren’t mentioned or were glossed over, most of them considerations specific to the woman involved. I like the show a lot, too, and I love that it does question a lot of social norms, but yeah, that smug, entitled perspective really gets me sometimes.

RonnieTalkToRussia:

I just never really doubted, deep down in my soul (which is where I process Scrubs episodes), that they would have the baby, and that they would decide to have it by the end of that very episode.

Ha! Exactly. I mean, I don’t need my sitcoms to be realistic, but come ON. If this generally really liberal show can’t even convince us that there’s a serious question about it, we’ve got a long way to go. I’m glad to hear from people that other shows have handled it better, though.

As for the Gilmore Girls situation with Lane, I actually didn’t have too much of a problem with it, because it’s been made clear that Lane is very conservative in such matters — she waited to have sex until she got married, etc. I would have liked it better if there was a conversation about it, but I can live with it the way they did it. What I really don’t like about that scenario is that as far as we know at this point, she’s still only had sex once with her husband, and hated it.

In the end, as with most TV shows, she decided to continue the pregnancy. They decided.

I agree with the previous poster regarding Gilmore Girls, which was a totally weird pregnancy situation, because Lane was sick upon her return from her honeymoon, which was the first time she had sex. I am skeptical that her symptoms would have shown up so early in the pregnancy. And yes, that the struggling band-members never considered termination, even if Lane’s mom is exteremely religious.

Back when Party of Five was on, the oldest girl was pregnant and she had a miscarriage on her way to the abortion clinic. Last season, in Grey’s Anatomy, Sandra Oh’s character had an unintended pregnancy which she was intend on aborting. She had an ectopic pregnancy, however, so never had to make the decision.

I really, really liked that episode because not only was it very plain about how the abortion would save her life and was therefore such a no-brainer, but the respect for her privacy was great too.

Judging Amy. Amy and her mother discuss what to do about an unexpected pregnancy, and they both obviously consider abortion a viable, even an expected choice. The mother (Tyne Daly) asks Amy what she’s going to do, and lets her know that she will support her no matter what her choice.

But it is television, so she decides to continue the pregnancy. But they still discussed it exactly the way my feminist friends would.

Overall, Judging Amy is a great feminist show.

Agreed, one hundred percent. I love Amy Brennerman; That is to say, I’m in love with her. And Tyne Daly. Or not. Whatever. I’ve seen every episode of Judging Amy, her movie ATF, the one with Cameron Diaz, and the one with the guy who plays Grissom on CSI. All of them thanks very much to TNT and USA networks. And I really took notice with the other actors showed up on other shows, like the actor who played Donna was on another doctor show with the “Sister, Sister” twins, and ‘Vincent’ is in a bunch of good movies, and ‘Kyle’ was in an episode of CSI and an episode of ST:DS9. I’m a tv geek big time.