"ER" and Abortion

[Gethsemane]

A while ago I happened upon a rerun of the now canceled tv series, “ER”. This episode mostly focused on this young teen girl who came into the ER and discovered she was pregnant. She originally voiced concerns about carrying the child to term, however her parents were religious. This caused the young female intern to try and help the young girl abort her child and she was prevented by her higher up, Kovac. It’s revealed that Kovac is Catholic. Towards the end of the episode just before the young teen goes off, Kovac gives her this thing (didn’t catch what it was) saying that it could cause a miscarriage and was a way to ask God if he was really sure if he wanted this.

Personally, I find this morally appalling. But at the same time, this method spoken of, surely it has not a thread of morality to stand on, right? Kovac would also be committing mortal sin by suggesting it, right?

 

[Bookcat]

A while ago I happened upon a rerun of the now canceled tv series, “ER”. This episode mostly focused on this young teen girl who came into the ER and discovered she was pregnant. She originally voiced concerns about carrying the child to term, however her parents were religious. This caused the young female intern to try and help the young girl abort her child and she was prevented by her higher up, Kovac. It’s revealed that Kovac is Catholic. Towards the end of the episode just before the young teen goes off, Kovac gives her this thing (didn’t catch what it was) saying that it could cause a miscarriage and was a way to ask God if he was really sure if he wanted this.

Personally, I find this morally appalling. But at the same time, this method spoken of, surely it has not a thread of morality to stand on, right? Kovac would also be committing mortal sin by suggesting it, right?

Yes…such would be grave matter for mortal sin…for both…

 

[Joe_Kelley]

Yes…such would be grave matter for mortal sin…for both…

Agreed that it is grave matter. I would suggest that it is probably a mortal sin for Kovac, but possibly not for the girl. In abortion the woman may not freely consent; she may feel pressured. However, the provider would usually meet the criteria of full knowledge and free consent.

 

[Newbie2]

These kind of shows tee me off. They identify the character as Catholic yet he doesn’t act like one when it comes to abortion (or at least how one should act).

In another episode he pretended to be a priest to administer a dying patient’s last rites when there was apparently no time to find a priest. I may be a bit foggy on the details, but we the audiency was supposed to get all weepy over what a compassionate thing he did.

 

[PatriceA]

A while ago I happened upon a rerun of the now canceled tv series, “ER”. This episode mostly focused on this young teen girl who came into the ER and discovered she was pregnant. She originally voiced concerns about carrying the child to term, however her parents were religious. This caused the young female intern to try and help the young girl abort her child and she was prevented by her higher up, Kovac. It’s revealed that Kovac is Catholic. Towards the end of the episode just before the young teen goes off, Kovac gives her this thing (didn’t catch what it was) saying that it could cause a miscarriage and was a way to ask God if he was really sure if he wanted this.

Personally, I find this morally appalling. But at the same time, this method spoken of, surely it has not a thread of morality to stand on, right? Kovac would also be committing mortal sin by suggesting it, right?

Kovac may have been identified as Catholic on the show, but his character was never written to be a moral Catholic voice. His character was anything but.

 

[Gethsemane]

These kind of shows tee me off. They identify the character as Catholic yet he doesn’t act like one when it comes to abortion (or at least how one should act).

I agree! It’s very frustrating. In this particular episode I actually got excited because I thought there was finally going to be a morally sound ending to a tv show (especially considering it’s the topic of abortion which would have been gutsy) but nope, gotta hit home that a child in the womb is by some magical process not a human being.

 

[Mary_Gail_36]

A while ago I happened upon a rerun of the now canceled tv series, “ER”. This episode mostly focused on this young teen girl who came into the ER and discovered she was pregnant. She originally voiced concerns about carrying the child to term, however her parents were religious. This caused the young female intern to try and help the young girl abort her child and she was prevented by her higher up, Kovac. It’s revealed that Kovac is Catholic. Towards the end of the episode just before the young teen goes off, Kovac gives her this thing (didn’t catch what it was) saying that it could cause a miscarriage and was a way to ask God if he was really sure if he wanted this.

Personally, I find this morally appalling. But at the same time, this method spoken of, surely it has not a thread of morality to stand on, right? Kovac would also be committing mortal sin by suggesting it, right?

I stopped watching ER specifically because of this episode. I actually like the Luka character, his struggle with the faith after his family died. .

BTW, what he gave her was called a laminaria. It causes the cervix to dialate. It is often used in later term abortions, laminaria is inserted on one day, the abortion is completed the next day.

He inserted the laminaria, and then the girl would have gone off to lose the baby at a later time.
By herself. All while the two were quoting the Bible.

So what he did was DIRECT involvement in an abortion.

Which was totally confusing for the character. In the SAME episode he was tormented with worry that Abby would abort his baby. She didn’t.

 

[LilyM]

Which was totally confusing for the character. In the SAME episode he was tormented with worry that Abby would abort his baby. She didn’t.

Sadly, most if not all human souls are conflicted in this fashion over different issues.

I seem to remember a family member telling one of her children off for using bad language and then, when the child was barely out of the room, turning to the rest of us and saying something like ‘I don’t know where the @#$#@$ kid gets that ^%$^$^$^ language from!’

uhhh, look in a mirror - kids can hear you even when they’re out of the room y’know!

Few of us have the disconnect pointed out so vividly, of course.

 

[His_Daughter]

yes I think that would be a mortal sin

it’s frustrating how tv rarely shows Catholicism accurately!