WARNING: The following contains spoilers for the Season 5, Episode 5, of This Is Us, "A Long Road Home," which aired Tuesday on NBC.
In the last episode before This Is Us' winter hiatus, an 18-year-old Kate Pearson learned she was pregnant with her abusive boyfriend Marc's baby after their break up. Now, in the mid-season premiere of This Is Us, "A Long Way Home," Kate shares the relationship, pregnancy and her subsequent abortion with her husband, Toby, as the show flashes back to a young Kate going through the abortion on her own.
This Is Us handles this abortion storyline with compassion and nuance. In the present, Kate makes it very clear that she made her decision with certainty and has never regretted it. When Toby asks why she did not reveal this part of her life to him before, she does not cower or apologize. And when he delicately compares her abortion to their two-year journey to get pregnant, she makes it clear that she does not equate the situations. At no point does she, Toby or the show do anything to imply that her abortion had anything to do with the couple's fertility issues or Kate's miscarriage. Abortions do not negatively impact fertility or increase the chances of future miscarriages, and the show doesn't give any air to this oft-repeated misconception.
Meanwhile flashbacks show a young Kate getting through the difficulties of the procedure. At the clinic, she must answer very specific, pointed questions about her decision, and is then required to come back another day for the actual abortion. These are legal requirements, and the show does a good job subtly pointing out that getting an abortion is an ordeal that is not entirely in the control of the woman who's made the decision to have it, though it refrains from any obvious editorializing.
The flashbacks also make it clear that Kate is upset about the situation she is in and that her relationship with Marc will create years of mental trauma. However, the show carefully establishes that it is the abusive relationship, not the abortion, that is the cause of Kate's trauma. Marc isolated her from her friends and family when she was at her most vulnerable. Even when her mother detects something is wrong after she comes home from the abortion, Kate hides the truth because that is what Marc conditioned her to do. It is this grooming and manipulation Kate must recover from as she matures and finds joy later in life.
This Is Us handles its many emotional plotlines with kindness and care and Kate's abortion storyline is no different. In both the present and the past, the series presents Kate's situation compassionately, validates her choices and never judges her. Instead, the show specifically articulates that Kate's trauma is the result of her abusive relationship, not the choices she makes about what to do with her body.
Created by Dan Fogelman, This Is Us stars Milo Ventimiglia, Mandy Moore, Justin Hartley, Chrissy Metz, Sterling K. Brown, Chris Sullivan and Susan Kelechi Watson. New episodes air Tuesdays at 9pm ET/PT on NBC.