The Burden of Our Choices (Season 21, Episode 4)
Premise: A pregnant 13-year-old flees Ohio to get an abortion in New York, and her fight to end the pregnancy exposes years of abuse at home and sets off a legal battle with Ohio prosecutors.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 21, Episode 4
- Starring
- Capt. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Sgt. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola (Ice-T), Det. Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish), Det. Katriona “Kat” Tamin (Jamie Gray Hyder), Deputy Chief Christian Garland (Demore Barnes), ADA Dominick “Sonny” Carisi Jr. (Peter Scanavino), Defense Attorney Trevor Langan (Peter Hermann)
- Guest stars
- Kira McLean as Evangeline Miller, Lucy Walters as Tammy Miller, Zach Gilford as James Miller, Christian Clemenson as Forreston Graham, Jamie McShane as Pastor Mark
- Ripped from the headlines
- Draws on the restrictive anti-abortion legislation Ohio passed in 2019, including the fetal heartbeat law the characters cite.
- Director
- Martha Mitchell
- Writers
- Story: Warren Leight; Teleplay: Micharne Cloughley; Story & teleplay: Julie Martin
Summary
“The Burden of Our Choices” opens on a Sunday as Officer Kat Tamin begins a trial tour with SVU while the squad gathers for the baptism of Rollins’s younger daughter, Billie. Thirteen-year-old Evangeline Miller has run away from her small Ohio town, and her mother, Tammy, her stepfather, James, and their pastor drive overnight to New York, sure she followed Isaac Franklin, 19, who is wanted back home on a statutory rape charge involving another girl. Tamin traces Isaac through a fresh tattoo; he says Evangeline stayed with him and is panhandling with his dog. Rollins finds her near a pizza shop, and a doctor says she has been sexually abused or active for two years or more and is 12 weeks pregnant.
Evangeline says she came to New York for an abortion, which her devout family would forbid, and that the father made her promise to keep their secret. Benson has child protective services take custody of her and calls in Trevor Langan to represent her. Her parents call the baby a gift from God and say Isaac must marry her. When they press a family court judge to send her home to Ohio, Evangeline cries out that her stepfather made her pregnant, and she later describes abuse that began the day after her eleventh birthday. James leaves for the airport with the pastor rather than give DNA, and Tammy tells Benson any test can wait until the baby is born.
Just as the judge is about to rule that the choice is Evangeline’s alone, Forreston Graham of the Mercer County, Ohio, DA’s office bursts in with a writ of habeas corpus and arrest warrants for the detectives, Carisi, his boss and even the judge, charging conspiracy to commit murder under Ohio law. Garland, a church deacon who believes in the sanctity of life, vows to fight. A judge refuses to hand the officers over and an appeals court will not hear Ohio’s case, but the abortion stays on hold. Evangeline then throws herself down a flight of stairs and tells her mother she was trying to kill herself, not the baby. On the stand, Tammy recalls her violent first husband, apologizes for failing to protect Evangeline and says she believes her.
Spoiler, the ending: The judge returns Evangeline to her mother on condition that James is permanently removed from the home. Carisi tells Graham that his own mother ended a pregnancy after learning the baby could not survive, and urges him not to let James escape justice. Ohio prosecutors later confirm through DNA that James is the father and charge him with 114 counts of child rape, and Rollins goes with Evangeline to the clinic for her procedure.
Why it stands out
- Kat Tamin joins SVU as a detective-in-training; Jamie Gray Hyder becomes a main cast member later in the season.
- Peter Hermann returns as defense attorney Trevor Langan, who represents Evangeline.
- Christian Clemenson plays Ohio prosecutor Forreston Graham, and Zach Gilford and Lucy Walters play Evangeline’s stepfather and mother.