Fiction is political. This statement cannot always be written with the same forcefulness, but in the case of Grey’s Anatomy, there is no doubt. Given the setbacks in the sexual and reproductive health of women in the United States, as a result of the Dobbs v. Jackson case, in which the Supreme Court concluded that the Constitution does not contemplate the right to abortion, the writing team has introduced episodic plots where exposes to what extent women are victims of the system. The medical series rebels, to be exact, against the policies promoted by the Republican Party and conservative lobbies.

The foundation was laid in November when Dr. Addison Montgomery (Kate Walsh) was persuaded by Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson) to attend a family planning clinic near the Washington state border. Because Idaho borders, and abortion policies there are very restrictive, the medical center is inundated with patients crossing the border for medical care. What is dramatic is not only the protest that the surgeons find at the door, where dozens of citizens receive them as if they were criminals, but the case with which they must deal.

And it is that, in order to help a needy patient, they offer to drive to the border with Idaho to transfer the woman to Washington. The patient wanted to be a mother for the second time but, after discovering that she has an ectopic pregnancy in a caesarean section scar that puts her life at risk, she chooses to terminate the pregnancy. Since her referral doctor does not dare to defy state laws because the fetus has a heartbeat, she must cross the border to receive the health care that she needs and that does not endanger her life. However, upon encountering a blockage and the complications derived from the pregnancy, the patient lost her life.

“They are the legislators. They should be brought here, let them see the carnage they have caused, let them see all the blood. How are we supposed to be doctors if we can’t treat patients? We are bound by laws that are written by people who are far removed from this,” shouts Addison Montgomery in the episode written by Julie Wong. “I am outraged! Women’s lives are in danger! And our hands, which are prepared to treat them, are tied”, releases the agent who finds the body of a woman who, had there been a different legislation in Idaho, a state governed by Republican Brad Little in reality, would be live.

The reality, moreover, is even harsher. Since August, when the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling was struck down, which interpreted that the Constitution protected the freedom of a pregnant woman to choose an abortion without excessive government restrictions,

Little prohibited abortion regardless of the gestation stage of the pregnancy. It is only allowed in case of rape, incest or if the life of the mother is in danger, which, as shown in Grey’s Anatomy, puts doctors in a difficult position: if they receive a complaint, they would be vulnerable before the law.

In addition, there are sentences for those who can help minors to terminate a pregnancy: sentences of between two and five years in prison for providing abortion pills without the permission of the parents or for transferring the minor to a state where she can practice abortion. abortion. “Abortion trafficking”, they call it. In total, there are thirteen states that have totally or almost totally prohibited abortion and it is estimated that in the coming months there could be up to 26 territories if the measures promoted by the Republicans go ahead.

From the Jezebel medium, they echoed a study by Abortion Onscreen that reported that, since the setback caused by the Supreme Court, a third of the 60 abortion plots on American television in 2022 had to do with legal obstacles to exercise sexual and reproductive freedom. In order to understand the concern of Hollywood creatives, in the previous year 47 plots related to abortion had been written and only two had to do with the difficulties in receiving this medical treatment.

The battle of Grey’s Anatomy, moreover, did not stop at this ectopic pregnancy turned into a tragedy. In the first episode after the departure of Ellen Pompeo, the eighth of the nineteenth season and written by Briana Belser, she even naturally showed a voluntary abortion. A patient found out she was pregnant and, knowing that she had suffered from postpartum depression after giving birth to her two children, feared for her life: what if this time her mental health brought her family down, or worse, led her to death? to the death? So Jo Wilson (Camilla Luddington) explained the procedure to him point by point and he practiced it on camera. The Gray Sloan Memorial Hospital once again chose the trenches in the cultural and political war in which the United States lives.

It is not the first time that Grey’s Anatomy has positioned itself openly in public debates. Meredith was about to lose her medical license for committing a crime and falsifying health insurance so that a girl could save her life; During the spread of the covid, fiction vindicated medical personnel and the importance of vaccines to get out of the pandemic; and, based on the character of Miranda Bailey, she denounced the health discrimination suffered by black women with heart complications, revealing how systemic racism exists when entering the emergency room doors. On nonfictional grounds, both its creator Shonda Rhimes and its star Ellen Pompeo have been outspoken supporters of the Democratic Party.

And, for those wondering if Grey’s Anatomy will continue to openly position itself against the restrictions of conservative voters, this is not over: Addison, who decided to go help women whose rights were violated, will return to Seattle and there will be a protest.