Has anyone else been entranced by the show Everwood? It aired a number of years ago but was one of my favorites. I never agreed with all of the shows "opinions," but I always loved that they showed more than one side of an argument. They created a story about real people in a real town...with real life problems. Many shows claim to do this. Most of them don't. Some of what happens in Everwood is extreme or unlikely. A lot of it, like the quote taken from the following episode, are things that are rarely handled with such grace and surprising eloquence.
Andy Brown is the character at the heart of the series, a renowned surgeon who's wife was tragically killed in a car accident, after which he moves his family to a tiny mountain town in Colorado called Everwood. In the episode I'm referring to, a young girl becomes pregnant and is being pushed into having an abortion by her religious family. Andy, having hailed from New York and being the go-to (and only) liberal in the community, is sought out by the girl's father to handle the issue. Surprisingly, Andy can't go through with the procedure. When asked by his friend why, he gives this beautiful reply:
"I've always believed that women should have a right to choose...Julia and I sat on the board together in New York. She thought it was the most important thing a woman owned, and I agreed with her.
Then, about 8 years ago, I did a surgery in utero. It was a spina bifida baby. I was trying to prevent paralysis; it was a best case scenario. The mother wanted to carry it to term. It was a success...and then it was a she. A patient...with a file, a history and a name: Emily. Do you know that you can take a picture of a fetus that's 54 days old? All the organs are visible. Not a person, not able to live outside of the womb, but a perfect possibility of a person.
Kate Morris has been pregnant for 62 days.
I don't know when life begins. I don't even know if, for a scientist, that question is answerable.
But I do know when it ends. And after this year, after losing Julia, I just don't think I can be the one to end it."
It's still a safe answer, not wanting to qualify "when life begins," but to know when it ends? An ending requires a beginning.
The other doctor who actually performs the abortion is a very conservative gentleman, and though he goes through with the procedure he does not agree with it. The show ends with him in confession. I really appreciated for once seeing a show that can present two sides of an argument and come up with the same answer.
For me, abortion has a simple response: It's wrong. I don't agree with it. It makes me sick to my stomach hearing the statistics increase every year. I've heard every possible side of this issue and I'm not looking for a debate. I just watched that particular episode again (I'm going through the 3 of Everwood's 4 seasons) and it always leaves me with the same feeling. And that is all I wanted to say.
