Last week, a milestone of sorts was reached for network television shows. For the first time in almost four decades, a primary character not only chose to have an abortion, but actually went through with the procedure.
Grey’s Anatomy has addressed a number of emotional and intense topics in its previous seven seasons, and as befits a medical soap opera, the situations and results have sometimes felt more far-fetched and nonsensical than organic and realistic. Yet the plot line involving whether surgeon Cristina Yang would continue a pregnancy that her husband very much wanted, or have the abortion that she desired played out in an even-handed manner that neither demonized Cristina for not wanting to be a mother or made light of her husband’s yearning to be a father.
