The producers and writers of The Walking Dead are fully aware that the morning-after pill would not induce an abortion or miscarriage. We exercised our artistic creative license to explore a storyline with one of our characters, not to make any pro-life or pro-choice political statement. We sincerely hope that people are not turning to the fictional world of The Walking Dead for accurate medical information.

Glen Mazzara, The Walking Dead’s executive producer, says the above in response to our inquiry regarding the ongoing fury around the writers’ decision to have a character take “morning after pills” many weeks into a pregnancy with hopes of ending it. The morning-after pill, as you most likely know, doesn’t quite work like that.

Kate Aurthur, our West Coast Editor, explains: “Mazzara’s statement could be dissatisfying for those among us who think that anything in culture, whether it’s fictional or not, is political, and for others among us who know that lots of people do extrapolate medical information from scripted television. What is certain is that abortion—which is still legal—continues, perhaps more than any other, to be a fraught issue in popular culture.” 

More at ‘The Walking Dead’s’ Abortion Misstep