User Reviews

Where the parents care more about the fetus than the fact that she was raped by her stepfather. She's 13 . This episode shows how crazy the Ohio and Texas abortion laws are. Pretty good the judge Graham was insane.

Last season, Benson was written as having a couple of very disgusting anti-choice moments (most notable in the episode "Dearly Beloved"), that nearly put me off of SVU altogether (after being a fan for pretty much the entire 20 years).

This season, I have been eagerly anticipating a chance for them to redeem themselves on this topic, so this episode was a breath of fresh air. A show like SVU (regardless of age) can't keep its head above water if it refuses to reflect the reality it lives in. And the reality right now is, North America is overwhelmingly Pro-Choice, for many different reasons.

Unlike most people who seem to be leaving reviews for SVU, I actually love and *prefer* when the show deals with political and difficult topics. Mariska, as an activist, and a woman who is openly Pro-Choice herself - not to mention Dick Wolf himself, push the show to be in the Now as much as possible.

This episode was very good, especially the acting from Kelli and Peter. I was somewhat disappointed that they chose stories where an abortion seemed more 'palatable', but it was still good to see all the characters taking the same side. The slight variations in their reasoning (age gap, faith, etc.) was also a realistic take.

Don't listen to the conservative, anti-choice haters. This episode was great - I've seen more than enough to know.

Rewatching this in the wake of the overturning of Roe v Wade and the subsequent gutting of abortion rights in a large part of the country, and the complaints in some reviews that this was too overdone seem naive. It actually predicts exactly the situation created by allowing different standards in different states (and laws based on the religious views on only certain members of certain faiths) in stead of a basic constitutional standard. Already we have seen the case of a 10 year old rape victim having to be transported out of state to have her pregnancy terminated. A prescient episode that shows the implications of such a situation.

I actually liked this episode. It was interesting and moving and I think it puts the issue of abortion in a decent perspective. Most people see abortion as either a complete right or an awful sin. The truth is - it's neither. It's a complicated moral situation that deserves our absolute attention. The episode did a good job addressing it but it could have been done even better. People who are pro-life are not all religious zealots. Carisi is a good example. He can see both sides and try to balance the two to find the right answer. I wish Benson would be less judgemental and do the same. If you think about it, Benson has done so much good in her life and she is the result of rape! That doesn't mean I support rape or incest. Those are awful crimes and the people who commit them should be punished! But it does mean that something good can come out of it. Same goes for Noah, her son. She is the adoptive mother of a child born from an awful situation. She has him in her life because of it. Would she prefer he wasn't there? Abortion is not the only option. It's not black or white. The problem is that people are convinced there's only one right answer. There isn't! We shouldn't judge each other so much and discuss the issue with best intentions at heart. If we do that, we could come up with a good solution. Oh, and one more thing, I did NOT appreciate the Nazi reference! I wish people would stop using it to their own advantage. Make your point without that. It's belittling the Holocaust.

A pretty good episode here that truly felt like a vintage SVU, but the political leanings continue to overpower the storytelling. Carisi's rant at the end was an attempt to try and say, "We don't hate religion," but it just didn't work.

Good episode, but you don't have to tackle hot button issues like this all the time.

This episode doesn't quite take on, at least not head-on, the persistent lie that forced birth is somehow not only moral, but the implacable will of an apparently misogynist god. The 13-year-old girl in this case was shown to have a "good reason" for wanting an abortion, i.e., that her pregnancy resulted from repeated rape by her stepfather. Then an out-of-state attorney tries to charge the New York D.A.'s office with attempted murder for trying to provide necessary medical care to a minor in need. At the end, A.D.A. Carisi offers the evangelical Ohio lawyer a gratuitous story about his mother's choice to have an abortion after learning that her baby could not survive--again, a "good reaon," not simply the pregnant person's own choice, for whatever reason. It's sad to see SVU pulling its punches like this.

I try to overlook the liberal bent this show has and some episodes it's not that bad and the cases aren't political. But listening to that new detective's pro abortion screed was nauseating. It's only gotten worse since Mariska Hargitay became executive producer. However, I saw a deleted scene on YouTube where Benson tells Rollins about her pregnancy scare. Nice to see those two getting closer and Benson not acting like so nasty toward her anymore. I just wish the scene hadn't been deleted. I seriously think this show should just hang it up after this season. The new detective is annoying and Carisi as a DA just feels off. They should've kept him and brought in a new DA or not have Stone commit a crime and write him off. That way the new detective could be partners with Carisi and you have Fin and Rollins. The show lost something when Stabler left even though I wasn't his biggest fan. Plus the exist of Cragen and Munch. New blood is good but people invest in characters. Amaro was too much like him with the anger management issues and messed up marriage. Rollins was so messed up you wonder how she and Amaro ever kept their jobs.

Where do I go to get my 43 minutes back? Is there a WayBack time machine that I can use? Friends and neighbors, that's how much time I spent watching this public service announcement for Planned Parenthood? Moreover, the state of Ohio is made the villain in the person of a high-powered attorney (Christian Clemenson, who used to be in CSI: MIAMI). Fundamental Christians are stereotyped as knuckle-dragging Bible bangers, while Dick Wolf's liberal orthodoxy runs rampant. Evangeline's baby could have been born and then adopted by a loving couple, but that didn't come up in this episode. In the end, Evangeline goes ahead with the abortion, at thirteen years of age and as for the stepfather who knocked her up, at least he gets to go to jail. And the entire Special Victims Unit doesn't get arrested by the state of Ohio. That's something. Not one of the better episodes. Dick Wolf is going to have to do a whole lot better than that. When I want to hear liberals talking, I will watch MEET THE PRESS with that lovable host Chuck Todd and waste electricity that way. So there.

I'm saying it right up front - this review has absolutely nothing to do with politics. The episode certainly offended me, but that wasn't due to political messages. I was truly offended that the writers treated the audience like a bunch of ignorant saps.

The episode obviously is intended to relay a social message, so it doesn't call for suspension of disbelief. There has to be a significant level of credibility to get the message through to the audience. However, the writers here lost all credibility when they completely and utterly botched basic legal concepts (in a show with a title containing the word LAW, by the way). But botch them they did, and here goes....

A judge in the State of Ohio issued arrest warrants for crimes under Ohio law that were (or were about to be) committed in the State of New York. Huh? You don't have to be a lawyer to understand this one really simple concept: Ohio state law does not apply to acts that are wholly committed within the State of New York. However, the writers give us the premise that the State of Ohio sits on top of the world because their legislature passed a law, and the audience is just supposed ignore the tiny legal concepts of jurisdiction and state sovereignty? Wow... Just, wow...

This isn't nitpicking because one of the major plot points is that the NYC police and a New York judge don't act to help the victim because they fear being arrested for violating Ohio law - WITHIN NEW YORK!!! And then we are presented with a courtroom scene where lawyers argue about full faith and comity? That was the final straw. I couldn't take any more of this garbage, and the entire social message of the episode went right down the drain.

To say it was poorly written is the understatement of the decade. Message to the writers - your audience is not dumb. Stop treating them that way!