THE PITT’s R. Scott Gemmill on the Importance of the Medical Drama’s Abortion Storyline

As Max’s THE PITT has explored a variety of medical issues that arise in a Pittsburgh ER, the writers brought one hot-button topic into the mix relatively early: Abortion.

Kristi (Abby Ryder Fortson) came into the ER earlier this season, seeking an abortion. At first, the issue was whether her pregnancy had progressed too far for the doctors and nurses to be able to treat her. But then Kristi’s mother arrived and made it clear she wouldn’t consent to allowing her daughter to end the pregnancy. (Kristi had brought her aunt to the hospital, so the team didn’t realize they didn’t have parental permission.)

Now (in the Thursday, February 13 episode), a distraught Kristi has barricaded herself in the bathroom, and the healthcare workers have to find a way to get her out…and see whether they’ll be able to get parental permission.

Tackling this timely story was important to the writers of THE PITT. “We have a very diverse group of gender and ethnicity,” creator R. Scott Gemmill tells Give Me My Remote. “Whenever we come up with a story, everyone weighs in, and we think of what is the best way, what is the most fair way. It’s sort of like anybody else went around the kitchen table. That was something that we felt was important.”

In the aftermath of Roe v. Wade being overturned, “the changes that were made are not—for people like me—progressive,” Gemmill points out. “They’re actually recessive. And those are things I don’t think should be happening, and we see there are repercussions that are not positive because of that. I’m sorry that some people have a very strong opinion about it, but I think we have to be able to show what can happen. So that was important for us.”

As the doctors and nurses are trying to protect Kristi, “the characters also have their own independent personalities and opinions,” Gemmill says. “Part of what is a good drama is seeing people with different opinions trying to come to some sort of resolution. Hopefully, in our world, there’s a certain amount of civility so that you can actually disagree with someone without burning the house down.”

“We just tried to be fair and honest,” he continues. “It’s not our job to really offer solutions, as much as to shine a light on some of the problems and let others make a determination on how they feel about it.”

THE PITT, Thursdays, Max

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