ER (TV Series) If Not Now (2006) User Reviews

If Not Now (#12.11)

[ComedyFan2010 · 8/10 · 12 May 2015]

I was sure from the start that Luka and Abby will keep the baby. But I really like how they went through with it in this episode. Showing all the second guessing and what they were worried. The scene at the end when Abby tells him she kept it was also beautiful.

It was also great how they added the story about the girl who got pregnant after a rape. it was so well done, her horrible Christian parents still wanting to force the child on her. It was great to see Luka helping her our, even though he is a catholic himself. He handled this situation greatly. And it was very well written how he made her not feel guilty about it.

Two Different Pregnancies

[sycamoreavenue · 8/10 · 11 April 2021]

When first broadcast, I stopped watching ER regularly around season 10 so the details of certain story lines are new to me, like this episode. Thought this episode was well done, contrasting two different pregnancies, neither of them planned, both with unique situations that made keeping them or aborting very personal, very real to what happens to actual women/couples. Luka in the middle of both.

.With Abby, he wants the baby as wants to have another family (after losing his years before) but reassures Abby its the relationship with her he wants more; his religious beliefs on when life begins are an element, but not the major one. With the pregnant 15 yr old girl who was raped, his religious beliefs are there, but ultimately he does what his medical responsibilities require him to do (even though Neela thinks he would not): ascertain what the girl wants separate and apart from her parents who have very, very strong religious beliefs. When the girl says she really doesn't want to have a baby, can't have a baby at her age, Luka assists her medically w/out the knowledge of the parents which is (both in 2005 and today) the law regarding privacy for teenagers re reproduction. At the end Abby decides not to go thru the abortion she thought she wants based on her lifelong fear of passing on bipolar disorder genes (her mother and brother both have it). It appears that Abby's decision to keep the pregnancy is a complicated decision based on her desire for a child, her comfort with Luka, and witnessing so many happy and sad child-mother situations. Having children or not, such a very personal decision, was pretty well handled in this episode with different outcomes reflecting two of the multitude of complicated life situations in real life.

What isn't very well done and is frankly very annoying (at least to me) is the Dr Clemente story line. He's been played as a loud, invasive, abrasive character, and the whole scheme of him and this woman from a previous life in NY is just ham-handed and kind of dumb. Ray Barnett's wobbling between medicine and music seems to come to a head here, at least hopefully; the character is really too old to be so undecided about careers.

Crossing lines

[dblouin · 6/10 · 29 February 2020]

This episode makes "wanting" the baby the sole criteria for the moral case for abortion. Such a low standard, morally speaking. Abby is a hero because she decides she WANTS to have Luka's baby, and the teenager is brave for lying to her parents about allowing Luka to help her induce a "miscarriage" because she doesn't want the baby. Nothing discussed about the reality of the unique individual of the baby. And Luka citing Genesis and the "breath" that made Adam a living being. Such a misinterpretation of that unique instance.