NBC's Law & Order: "Rape Doesn't Justify Abortion"

American RTL is remembering NBC's only pro-life Law & Order episode, titled Dignity, which is excerpted below. This episode is pastor-approved and you can view it online. Law & Order excerpts:

From Detective Kevin Bernard, played by Anthony Anderson: "You got it backwards, man. The horrible thing is the rape, not the bringing of a life into the world."

Assistant District Attorney (ADA) Connie Rubirosa says, "I grew up thinking Roe v. Wade was gospel. … But [now] I don't know where my privacy ends and another being's dignity begins."

Executive ADA Michael Cutter, played by Linus Roache, was quoting real-world surveys when he said, "The tide has turned. Most Americans are pro-life now."

Cutter virtually quoted the co-sponsor of Colorado's 2010 Personhood Amendment, Gualberto Garcia Jones, who launched the statewide ballot initiative holding his 10-day-old son at a press conference and saying, "Two weeks ago, my son had less rights than a dog or a cat." Speaking to District Attorney Jack McCoy, Cutter says, "My God, cats and dogs have more rights than the unborn."

Other items of note: a detective rejected abortion after rape; fetuses were referred to as "persons;" and even the pro-choice mom who, against her doctor's advice, did not abort her premature baby and found out in the hours they had together that her child "wasn't a monster, like the doctors warned me."

Det. Bernard also said, "That unwanted child could change the world. Cure cancer, be president."

In the past, the word for fetuses "L & O" would put into a pro-lifer's mouth would be babies, "save the babies." That's fine. But this time around there's a wider vocabulary, and a pro-life attorney on the show argues for the unborn, "in defense of other persons."

The two late-term abortionists in the episode are both depicted by the writers as fanatics, immoral and criminal, violating even permissive abortion laws. The deceased abortionist was even guilty of infanticide, killing a baby who had survived the abortion attempt by stabbing him in the back of the neck. No wonder the left is apoplectic about this episode, as Kate Harding at Salon.com said, that we all should be able to hear "that sound … It's my head exploding." For half a century, liberals dismissed concern about Hollywood's message. "It's just make-believe." Hardly. [2016 Superbowl Update: Even more telling than Harding's reaction is the pro-abortion camps hatred of the Doritos Superbowl commercial showing an unborn child in the womb.]

The producers based a nurse character apparently on a composite of real-life women, including Brenda Pratt Shafer and Dr. Beverly McMillan, both former abortion providers, and pro-lifer Jill Stanek, R.N., who exposed abortionists at Chicagoland's Christ Hospital after she saw them leave for dead a baby who had survived an abortion. On the program, an abortion clinic worker told the police they "had one nurse quit … because of the threats" from pro-lifers. But the nurse herself corrected the record, saying she quit because the abortionist murdered a baby after it was born.

The show's writers also described the peaceful protest group, which they named Mission for Life, whose members held a vigilante until police arrived. "We're against violence. We encourage [the moms] to get sonograms so they can see their baby's face, their tiny fingernails. We change more minds with love than with threats." That sentiment reflects the entire personhood movement.

Another influence from the personhood movement occurs when a mom testified that doctors urged her to have an abortion. "I was in my sixth month. … My doctor … recommended I have a late-term abortion." In the show this mother did not have the abortion even though, "I knew my baby would die soon after her birth, but I wanted her death to be natural. I wanted her to die with dignity. … My beautiful daughter Amanda was born on May 5th. I never experienced such a sense of happiness when they put her in my arms. She had blue eyes, curly brown hair. She wasn't a monster, like the doctors warned me."

Later, "one of the nurses woke me; she said it might be Amanda's time. When they brought her to me, Amanda was struggling to breathe. She didn't cry, or seem like she was in pain. I looked in her eyes, and I sang to her. I felt like she was comforted by my presence, like she could feel my love for her. She slipped away. My daughter was alive for 21 hours. … My daughter spent most of her life, peacefully in my arms. My husband and I felt honored we shared her life, happy she died with dignity. We mourned her life. After everything we went through, we felt clean."

A major character in the series, ADA Connie, played by Alana De La Garza, says, "I grew up thinking Roe v. Wade was gospel, and that a woman's privacy was inviolate. But after hearing that woman on the stand talk about her baby dying in her arms, I don't know. I don't know where my privacy ends and another being's dignity begins." And when urged to just do her job, she says, "Unfortunately, I can't leave my soul in the umbrella stand when I come in."

Then Cutter is warned not to refer to a fetus as a "baby," and he replies, "An unborn child is a life and a soul, to me. I can revert to PC in the courtroom, because it's my job. But I'm not going to do it in my own office." He suggests that we can "substitute slavery for abortion." And then in closing arguments he says, "We're dealing with an issue here that goes to the very mystery of our existence. What is life? When does it begin? … Despite all our differences, we are joined in one belief – that every life is special and unique, and imbued with inalienable rights."

DA Jack McCoy, played by Sam Waterston, says, "My daughter was pro-choice until she saw a sonogram of her unborn child." And later, "I used to expect people to be consistent. … I used to expect that [liberal] champions of human rights would claim some for the unborn. I don't expect that anymore."

The above excerpts come from an ARTL article at WND that ends with ARTL saying:

"Personhood is back, Jack. Expect a lot."

You'll love reading the full article at WorldNetDaily! It's stunning!

And see the WorldNetDaily Personhood Poll! Sound Off on the Personhood Movement and its possible impact on legal abortion. 3,000 people voted in this non-scientific WND poll and 95% answered positively including:

• the personhood "approach is spot on"
• "I'm encouraged to see the pro-life movement reawakening"
• "It's worth a try"
• "Personhood… is at the crux of the issue."

4% of the replies were pro-abortion. This WND poll demonstrates the high level of support for personhood from rank-and-file pro-lifers!