| "Life Choice" | ||
|---|---|---|
| ← | L&O, Episode 1.12 | → |
| Production number: 66213 First aired: 8 January 1991 | ||
 | ||
| Teleplay By David Black & Robert Stuart Nathan Story By Dick Wolf Directed By Aaron Lipstadt | ||
Plot
A young woman dies in a bombing at an abortion clinic. Greevey and Logan find themselves disagreeing over the issue of abortion. Schiff questions whether the views of Stone will interfere with his work.
Cast
Main cast
- George Dzundza as Sergeant Max Greevey
- Chris Noth as Detective Mike Logan
- Dann Florek as Captain Donald Cragen
- Michael Moriarty as Executive A.D.A. Benjamin Stone
- Richard Brooks as A.D.A. Paul Robinette
- Steven Hill as D.A. Adam Schiff
Guest cast
- Sully Boyar as Judge Harvey Sirkin
Guest cast
- Caroline Kava as Rose Schwimmer
- Paul Hecht as Defense Attorney Ballard
- Pat McNamara as Defense Attorney Molloy
- Clark Gregg as Patrick Dunne
- Jaime Tirelli as CSU Tech Oliver
- Bridgit Ryan as Celeste McClure
- Paul Butler as Judge Tyler B. Ashford
- Kevin Cooney as Geoffrey Donovan
- Laurie Kennedy as Barbara Donovan
- Kevin O'Rourke as Kevin Donovan
- Johann Carlo as Colman
- Jonathan Hogan as Corcoran
- LaTanya Richardson as Lorraine
- Jim Fyfe as Cleary
- Julie Halston as Jane
- Isa Thomas as Gwen Matson
- Rafael Ferrer as Clerk
- Steve Itkin as O'Hare
- Howard Spiegel as Bernstein
- Timothy Britten Parker as Cioran
- Larry Attile as Foreman
- Richard M. Davidson as Court Clerk
- Camryn Manheim as Leila
- Lynn Anderson as Woman #1
- Jane Sanders as Woman #2
- Lennie Loftin as Fogarty
- Frank Anderson as Man #1
References
- Anti-abortion violence in the United States
- Barbados
- Connecticut
- Mary Donovan/Sandra Turner
- Hawaii
- Mother Teresa
- United States Army
- Vietnam
- Washington, D.C.
Quotes
- Logan: So a seventeen-year-old should just louse up her whole life by having a kid?
- Greevey: Seventeen-year-olds shouldn't be doing what makes babies.
- Logan: And crooks shouldn't have guns. Get real. C'mon, what they should be is more careful.
- Greevey: Kids aren't careful, that's why they're kids!
- Logan: Mrs. Schwimmer didn't mention that she had tea with Ms. Toaster Oven.
- Greevey: I get it. Now every pro-life protester is a bomber?
- Logan: Well, you agree with them, don't you.
- Greevey: Okay, Don Juan. Any of your girlfriends ever have an abortion?
- Logan: One ex-girlfriend, who's now married with two kids. Neither of them mine.----
- Logan: The mother seems to be taking it pretty hard.
- Greevey: It's gonna take awhile.
- Logan: What, to realize that her daughter is dead?
- Greevey: To realize she didn't die with her.
- Logan: The father doesn't seem to be having that problem.
- Greevey: That's because he didn't lose a daughter...he gained a martyr.
- Logan: Come on, spare the rhetoric, all right, man? I don't consider abortion murder. If a woman wants one, that's her right to choose. Not yours, not mine and certainly not Miss Rose Schwimmer. Now I don't care what you believe. Trying to prevent abortions by bombing goes way too far. I don't know how you can even sit here and defend it!
- Greevey: You and I both know they didn't mean to hurt anybody.
- Logan: No, I don't know that, okay?! Only an idiot thinks bombs don't hurt people!
| “ | If you're gonna stick your finger in my eye, Mr. Ballard, clean your own nails first. | ” |
–Benjamin Stone to defense attorney Ballard | ||
- Ballard: These people aren't criminals.
- Stone: What are they, Mary Poppins? Mother Teresa?
- Ballard: They're exercising their right of free speech.
- Stone: Throwing a bomb is a little non-verbal to qualify as speech, sir.
| “ | Amazing. I'm getting angry. The most emotional issue that the law has dealt with since suffrage. Look at us, three men talking about what rights women should have over their own bodies. Now doesn't that strike you as a little one-sided? | ” |
–Adam Schiff | ||
- Geoffrey Donovan: Our daughter did what she did out of her own conscience. We can live with that.
- Barbara Donovan: You can live with that, Geoffrey. A martyr will never be able to tell me what a wonderful day she had at school yesterday. A martyr will never have a wedding. A martyr will never have children.
| “ | Objection, this case is being judged on the temporal plane, Your Honor. | ” |
–Benjamin Stone | ||
| “ | If abortion is murder, no matter how you feel about Mary Donovan, aren't you guilty of the murder of her unborn child? | ” |
–Benjamin Stone | ||
Background information and notes
- Dick Wolf stated in an interview on The Creation of Law & Order, an extra on the first year DVD collection of the series, that "Life Choice" is his favorite episode.
Episode scene cards
| 1 | 2 | 3 |
|---|---|---|
|
University Registrar's |
Chelsea Women's |
Nature First |
| 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
|---|---|---|---|
|
The Home of |
Supreme Court |
Supreme Court |
Supreme Court |
| Previous episode: "Out of the Half-Light" |
"Life Choice" Law & Order Season 1 |
Next episode: "A Death in the Family" |