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The second season of And Just Like That… has just wound to a close, and with the news of an upcoming third season on the way, many fans are binge-watching the romantic comedy series. And Just Like That... is the continuation of the iconic HBO series Sex and the City, and features many of the show’s original stars, including Sarah Jessica Parker, Kristin Davis, and Cynthia Nixon.

The show also includes some new characters, including Nicole Ari Parker as Charlotte’s bougie and stylish friend, Lisa Todd Wexley. It’s Parker’s character, known affectionately as “LTW” in the show, that is at the center of a controversial plotline that has some fans very disappointed.

‘Sex and the City’ has historically been progressive about abortion

Sex and the City debuted on HBO in 1998. The show quickly became popular with legions of fans, especially women, with many critics praising the series for the progressive way it treated serious issues at the time. The women at the heart of the show, Carrie, Miranda, Samantha, and Charlotte, dealt with issues like cancer, career woes, balancing motherhood and work, and adultery.

One of the show’s most important storylines was when Miranda, a woman dedicated to her career, discovered she was unexpectedly pregnant. After a heartfelt chat with her friends, Miranda decides that the best course of action is to have an abortion. Her friends, several of whom have had their own abortions, support her fully. In the end, Miranda decides against an abortion and goes on to have the baby, whom she names Brady. Fans embraced the storyline, and many appreciated how openly abortion was discussed.

And Just Like That… recently featured a surprise pregnancy storyline involving LTW. In the episode, Lisa is shocked to discover that she’s pregnant, after just getting back into the swing of things with her career. In a heartfelt scene, LTW tells Charlotte that she’ll likely have to regress in her career and will be forced to turn down job opportunities because of the unplanned pregnancy.

In a scene later in the episode, LTW gets angry at her husband for not getting a vasectomy years earlier. At that point, her husband asks her if they should have the “other discussion,” alluding to abortion, but LTW shuts it down right away, telling him that she “can’t,” and that she needs time to wrap her head around the idea of the pregnancy. For many fans, this is a complete change of pace from the conversation around abortion in Sex and the City so many years earlier.

Fans aren’t happy with the way ‘And Just Like That…’ treated the surprise pregnancy storyline

Sarah Jessica Parker’s Carrie Bradshaw in her new Gramercy Park apartment
Sarah Jessica Parker | Craig Blankenhorn/Max
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As reported by BuzzFeed, many fans were confused by the way And Just Like That… missed the mark with LTW’s surprise pregnancy. “If LTW doesn’t want to be pregnant why can’t she just…stop being pregnant??” one fan wrote, while another noted “If LTW just got an abortion and kept it moving that would be such a revolutionary storyline.”

“This was a perfect opportunity to show a woman making a thoughtful life choice about whether to carry a pregnancy or not,” one fan noted, remarking that the show could have done “more” to highlight LTW’s struggle. Later, when LTW’s pregnancy is shown to end in a supposed miscarriage, other fans saw it as a completely “cowardly” move. “Just watched an episode for a supposedly progressive feminist TV show where they would rather write a character as going through a miscarriage, to avoid her having another kid, than electing to have an abortion… cowards!!” the viewer said. For And Just Like That… writers, the storyline, and the fans’ response to it, might serve as a learning experience for the upcoming third season.

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