Hulu Drama ‘UnReal’ Justifies Abortion: ‘I Wasn’t Meant to Be a Mother’

The Hulu drama series, UnReal sees its lead character bend morality to justify aborting her unwanted pregnancy.

The series follows the lives of the cast and crew of a fictional TV series called Everlasting, a dating-type reality show similar ABC’s The Bachelor. The fourth and final season of the drama dropped on Hulu this month leaving the series to end on a dark note.
As the episode, titled “Sudden Death,” unfolded, Everlasting’s producer, Quinn King (Constance Zimmer), is shown at an appointment with her OB-GYN in which she learns she’s pregnant. Naturally, it is a diagnosis that the character — depicted as a single and driven career woman — does not meet with joy.

The baby’s father turns out to be a contestant on the “dating show” but King had recently gotten back with her boyfriend, Chet (Craig Bierko), and he meets the news of King’s pregnancy with excitement. Despite not being the biological father, Chet favors the idea of helping King raise a child and is thrilled for her because she was told in the past that she would be unable to become pregnant.

Regardless of the fact that her boyfriend is very supportive of her pregnancy, King is unconvinced that she should have the baby.

Later in the episode, King decides to step away from her producer duties on the show to reduce her stress levels and then attends another appointment with her doctor. But upon returning from her appointment, she tells Chet that the doctor told her there is something wrong with the fetus and it will only have a five percent chance of making it full term. The implication is that the only solution for the situation is an abortion, though the characters avoid using the word.

Sadly, the plot line takes a darker turn as the episode comes to an end. King is lying in bed. It is clear she is now recovering from an abortion. Fellow TV show executive, Rachel (Shiri Appleby) is there with her and she questions King about the aborted pregnancy.

“There wasn’t anything wrong with the baby was there?” Rachel asks.

King replies with a smile, “It doesn’t matter. I wasn’t meant to be a mother.”

In this final scene, we are led to believe that King terminated her pregnancy for mere convenience and lied to her supportive boyfriend to cover her action.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.