"I was expecting OB back-up."
Reproductive Healthcare on TV: "Love's Labor Lost" (ER, 1995)
This post is part of my Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice project examining the portrayal of reproductive healthcare on television. I am a social scientist, not a medical provider.
Content Notes: This post contains discussion of medical trauma and death.
I’ve talked about doing a project looking at the portrayal of abortion on TV since the Dobbs decision was leaked. Our stories mirror our reality. But as I started to collect episodes and think about what to watch for, I realized I wanted to follow the precepts of Reproductive Justice and look at more than just abortion. In my favorite series of all time, ER alone, there are so many stories that center reproductive healthcare in so many different ways. So, that’s where I’m starting, with an episode from ER’s first season. It premiered thirty years ago this week.
The Episode
ER Episode 1.19 “Love’s Labor Lost”
Premiered: March 9, 1995
The Patient
Jodi O’Brien (Colleen Flynn) is a 38-weeks pregnant white woman treated in County General’s ER in Chicago, Illinois. She is accompanied by her husband, Sean (Bradley Whitford).
The Physician
Dr. Mark Greene (Anthony Edwards) specializes in emergency medicine. He is the chief resident and expected to move to an attending position soon.
The Plot
Jodi initially presents with symptoms of a bladder infection and Mark sends her home with antibiotics and the directive to see her OB in the morning. However, she loses consciousness in the car and returns to the ER where the diagnosis is changed to eclampsia indicating the baby needs to be delivered immediately. OB does not have space or available doctors so labor is induced while Jodie is in the ER. When fully dilated, OB is still too busy. The baby is in distress so Mark moves forward with delivery. Vaginal delivery is stalled. They try an episiotomy and forceps but are unable to proceed and must do an emergent c-section. They move to a trauma room, no OB or trauma surgeons are available, but Mom is crashing so Mark moves forward. They deliver the baby and hand him off to the NICU but discover Jodi has a placental abruption. Dr. Coburn (Amy Aquino), chief of OB, finally arrives and takes over but they are unable to save Jodi.
This episode is critically acclaimed and widely considered one of ER’s, and television’s, best. It won Emmy awards for writing (Lance Gentile), directing (Mimi Leder), editing (Nick Tuber and Randy Jon Morgan), sound editing, and sound mixing. It ranked in TV Guide’s best television episodes of all time in 1997 (3rd) and 2009 (6th). Repercussions for Mark extended into the second season. After her introduction in this episode, Dr. Coburn recurred throughout the fifteen year run of the series.
The story of “Love’s Labor Lost” is not about the pro-choice/anti-choice dichotomy of abortion. The O’Briens, who are likely Irish Catholic but it is not important to the story, are excited parents to be and baby Jared is delivered only one week shy of being considered full-term. This story is about pregnancy complications and access to care. In 1995, the World Health Organization estimated the maternal morbidity ratio in the United States at 11.3 per 100,000 live births; in 2020* the estimate was 21.1 deaths per 100,000 live births. Maternal mortality declined across the world for decades but twenty years ago the U.S. maternal morality ratio began to rise. The U.S. continues to have the highest maternal death rate of any high-income country*. In 1995, Jodi’s story was a tragedy; in 2025, it is an alarm klaxon.
*The links show that the rate rises regardless of any COVID-related effects.
The Problems
Understaffing
This issue is the same in cities, suburbs, and rural areas: there are more patients in need of care than doctors available to serve them. In “Love’s Labor Lost”, Dr. Coburn is out of the hospital and Dr. Drake, the on-call OB, is unable to assist the ER physicians throughout the episode. Over and over again Mark asks for Coburn, Drake, and OB in general to be paged to no avail. They do not come and sometimes they do not even answer. OB is reported to be “slammed”, which is why Jodi is never transferred from the ER. The ER staff Mark has to help him are one resident, two med students, and a few rotations of nurses. When he decides to do a C-section, he asks for a trauma surgeon if OB can’t help, but neither come. Understaffing in hospitals, and specifically for OBGYNs, is a real problem that is only growing.
Undertraining
ER staff may be seen as jacks-of-all-trades. They are required to have a broad knowledge base and to be skilled in triage and trauma. However, their job is to stabilize patients and then transfer them to the appropriate department or specialist to address a specific injury or underlying condition. Mark has been trained to recognize and diagnose eclampsia. He has been trained to deliver a baby in an emergent situation. He is capable of inducing labor, performing an episiotomy and a forceps delivery, and resuscitating a newborn. He is highly skilled. But he is not a specialist. He is not the provider Jodi O’Brien needed. He did what he could and it was inspirational and it was not enough. Every time Jodi or her child were in distress the ER staff leapt into action. At no point did anyone in the ER do less than their best. And it was not enough.
Abortion bans are exacerbating the problem of undertraining. In Texas, abortion bans have created so much uncertainty that medical staff are hesitant to provide some forms of care, leading to infection and death. The laws are written purposefully vague to sow fear, to keep doctors from doing their best if their best might include abortion. Across all anti-choice states, OBGYNs are struggling to provide care and it is creating an “occupational health crisis”.
Our stories mirror our reality.
Both understaffing and undertraining represent a lack of access to appropriate care. Jodi’s story is not about the pro-choice/anti-choice dichotomy of abortion—but it represents the same fight. All pregnant people require and deserve access to appropriate care when they need it and with no delay. Delays in access to care kill. Delays in access to care kill. Delays in access to care kill.
Jodi’s story was told thirty years ago and it was told about a very white, very midwestern, very homegrown American couple. In 2022, the maternal mortality rate for Black women in the United States was 49.5 per 100,000 live births. Jodi and Sean and Mark are fake people who make me cry every time I watch the episode. Real people are dying today at significantly higher rates than thirty years ago. We need to mourn them and we need to demand better.
Read More
ER: An Oral History of the Powerful, Groundbreaking "Love's Labor Lost" (TV Guide, 2015)
Reproductive Justice as Intersectional Feminist Activism (Souls, 2018)
Reproductive Rights, Reproductive Justice: Redefining Challenges to Create Optimal Health for All Women (Journal of Healthcare, Science, and the Humanities, 2019)
Reproductive justice: A radical framework for researching sexual and reproductive issues in psychology (Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 2021)
US Obstetrician-Gynecologists' Perceived Impacts of Post–Dobbs v Jackson State Abortion Bans (JAMA Network, 2024)