As a devoted fan of SVU, I never watch the series live and usually catch up days later. I finally watched the April 4th episode and was troubled by its “pro-life” message — a woman is brutally raped by her psychiatrist, discovers she’s pregnant, and tells Olivia that she was going to have an abortion. Instead, Olivia persuades her to change her mind because the fetus is innocent and not guilty of a crime.

Years ago, another NBC series , L.A. Law, offered a similar message when they distorted a real case to promote an “anti-choice” agenda: in the show, a court-ordered C-section on a very ill woman saved the child, although the mother died; in real life, the court-ordered C-section could not save the child; the mother also died, but her life perhaps could have been prolonged if the doctors had not earlier refused to try chemotherapy because it would harm the fetus.