Written By Warren Leight and Julie Martin
Directed By Martha Mitchell
A troubled teen is found safe after having run away, but SVU is called in to determine the girls motivation for running away. Upon learning that the girl is pregnant and ran away to get an abortion against her parents' wishes, SVU is caught in a legal battle regarding the teens right to choose what happens to her body, which is made even more complicated when the team learns just who is the father of her child. Meanwhile, the squad gets together for Billie Rollins’ baptism and a new detective-in-training Katriona Tamin (Jamie Gray Hyder, who helped the squad with a case in the past, joins the Unit.
Tropes
- Driven to Suicide: Evangeline, about midway through the episode.
- Godwin's Law: Mercer County's DA compares abortion to Hitler murdering six million Jews in the Holocaust.
- Good Girls Avoid Abortion: The Millers clearly believe this. Evangeline doesn't particularly want the abortion, but she very much does not want to have her baby.
- Hypocrite: Mr. Graham, the DA for Mercer County, Ohio, insists that New York State should act with comity and turn over the detectives to be tried for murder and fetal harm, without once considering that Ohio should be the one acting with comity and allow them to enforce their abortion laws.
- Insult Backfire: The Mercer County DA arrives with arrest warrants for for everyone involved with the case. Chief Garland is flattered to receive one.
- Parental Incest: The father of Evangeline's baby is her step-father, who has been sexually abusing her for two years.
- Refuge in Audacity: The Mercer County DA delivers arrest warrants for everyone involved with the case, including the judge, in an attempt to stop Evangeline from getting her abortion.
- Shout-Out: During a demonstration against the Mercer County, Ohio DA, some pro-choice protestors are dressed as Handmaids.
