Rules of Television

If the world were like television, then all women who did not want to keep their babies -- especially single women who were dumped recently by their beaus -- would have miscarriages. The latest lesson in this: Grey's Anatomy. I like Sandra Oh a lot -- she has come a long way from playing an intolerable assistant on the intolerable Arliss, and was fun in the fun Sideways. Her character's plight on tonight's Grey's wouldn't frustrate me off so much if it didn't happen to almost every young unmarried pregnant woman on television (at least network television -- I don't count examples of excellence like Deadwood).

Was the last single woman to have a baby on network TV (and feel okay about it) Murphy Brown? Was the last woman to have an abortion on network tv Bea Arthur? Look, I am okay if we do not want to encourage people to have unsafe sex on network television. I'm okay if we don't want to discuss abortion during prime time. But then stop using pregnancy and miscarriage as a cheap plot device.

Yes, I am 268 years old.

(I would worry about giving away the plot on Grey's Anatomy if anyone were reading this.)