HBO Max’s Sex and the City spinoff, And Just Like That, was criticized by pro-abortion fans in season 2 for not being “progressive” enough because they supposedly “tiptoed” around the topic of abortion. Perhaps that’s why the writers decided to make light of the serious issue in its latest episode, “Better Than Sex,” and falsely claim it’s too late for a woman in New York to get an abortion if she’s visibly pregnant.
Divorced parents Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) and Steve (David Eigenberg) (Miranda left Steve in season 1 to explore her newfound “queerness” and is now a lesbian) are having dinner with their 20-year-old son Brady (Niall Cunningham) when Brady suddenly announces he “got someone pregnant.” Shocked, Steve and Miranda start asking questions and learn Brady “hooked up” with Mia (Ella Stiller) just a few times and can’t even remember her last name. Mia also doesn’t want Brady involved and only told him about the pregnancy because he ran into her when she was visibly showing.
Steve, clearly incensed, yells, “You were just getting your life together, and now you have f*ckеd it up so bad!” Brady calmly says they’ll “figure it out,” but Steve persists, screaming, “You have messed up your entire life!” Way to welcome your grandchild, Steve.
Miranda later calls her friends Carrie (Jessica Sarah Parker) and Charlotte (Kristin Davis) to vent about the situation, at which point the writers tried to brainwash viewers into believing a woman can’t get an abortion in New York once she’s visibly pregnant:
Charlotte: Okay, but what’s going on?
Miranda: Hold on, let me get Carrie. Carrie, are you there?
Carrie: Yes, I am.
Miranda: Hold on. Charlotte?
Charlotte: Yes?
Miranda: Okay. Brady… got somebody pregnant.
Charlotte: Oh, no!
Carrie: Oh, my.
Miranda: He came over to dinner tonight and dropped that bomb on Steve and me.
Charlotte: I didn’t even know Brady was seeing anyone.
Miranda: He isn’t! She was just a hook-up.
Carrie: Oh, my.
Charlotte: Oh, no! Oh, that’s my worst nightmare. Oh, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I’m making this about me. This is about you.
Miranda: Please. Can it be about somebody else?
Carrie: Well, what do you know about her?
Miranda: Nothing. Except that apparently, she’s showing so much, there’s no “not being pregnant” option.
Carrie: Is there room for another “oh, my”?
Miranda: Steve lost it. I’ve never seen him that upset at Brady. “You got someone pregnant who doesn’t want to be with you.” Sound familiar?
Charlotte: She doesn’t want to be with Brady?
Miranda: No! That’s something else I know. Hey, guys, I’m gonna be a grandma!
Carrie: Well, are you?
Miranda: What do you mean?
Carrie: Well, if she said she doesn’t want to be involved with Brady, that kind of means you, too.
Charlotte: Not necessarily. It’s kind of a gray area.
Miranda: And you know how much I love a gray area.
Carrie: Ooh!
Charlotte: Yeah.
Because New York state defines “health” so broadly, and because abortionists (who stand to profit from the abortion) are the ones who determine whether the procedure is necessary to protect a woman’s “health,” a woman can obtain an abortion up to birth. As Americans United for Life (AUL) states in their in-depth analysis of New York abortion laws:
Under New York’s broad health exception, if a pregnancy is affecting a woman’s “emotional well-being” for whatever reason, she can have an abortion up to the date of her unborn child’s birth. The abortionist simply has to find the abortion “necessary” to protect the patient’s “health”. Thus, under New York’s current law, a woman can obtain a late term abortion for any foreseeable social reason.
AUL also clarified that most late-term abortions aren’t performed for rare, medically necessary reasons, as many people falsely believe:
Although it is a common misconception that abortions performed under a health exception, or late-term abortions, are only performed in rare circumstances for medically necessary reasons, as the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (“AAPLOG”) states, “most abortions are done for social reasons.”
New York also passed legislation in 2024 that makes abortion part of their Equal Rights Amendment in the state’s Constitution. Catholic News Agency warned of the ramifications beforehand should the legislation pass:
One pro-life leader in the state said that the amendment could bar any future pro-life legislation from being passed in the Legislature, such as mandatory waiting periods or required ultrasounds before chemical abortion.
“The amendment essentially allows for fully unrestricted abortion in New York,” Michele Sterlace, executive director of Feminists Choosing Life of New York, told CNA Dec. 20.
Miranda decides to go undercover at the salon Mia works at to get as much information as she can, and the writers used the scene to scare women into believing pregnancy leads to uncontrollable and very loud gas (something which neither I experienced during my three pregnancies, nor have any of the many mothers I have known).
We also learn that Mia was planning to get an abortion until she learned her baby “would be a double Libra,” which is “gonna be such a f*cking vibe”:
Mia: I’m sorry. It’s so mortifying. I’m still getting used to all this gas since I’m pregnant.
Miranda: Congratulations! You must be so excited.
Mia: Well, honestly, I was gonna get an abortion until I realized the baby would be a double Libra. It’s gonna be such a f*cking vibe.
Miranda: Wow! I bet! What does the dad think? Is he into astrology?
Mia: You know what? I have no idea.
Miranda: You two aren’t close, then?
Mia: He’s cool, I guess. It’s not like we’re gonna raise the kid together. F*ck buddy status, you know?
Miranda: Then how do you know he’s the father? I was just wondering how you know if he isn’t your boyfriend. I mean, shouldn’t you get a paternity test or something?
Mia: Why would you ask me that?
Miranda: I’m “f*ck buddy’s” mother. Oh my God! Oh!
Mia: Coming in here, lying like that? So gross and inappropriate.
Miranda: I’m inappropriate? You just basically waterboarded me. Can I at least get a towel?
Mia: You have to be a Taurus.
Miranda: Mia, Mia, Mia, don’t go. Please. I shouldn’t have gone, I don’t know, “under cover,” but I just found out, and I’m still processing this. I hope because there’s a baby coming, we can have some kind of a connection, so our family can get to know this little boy or girl.
Mia: Little boy or girl? You’re so binary.
Alrighty then. What was Miranda supposed to say? Little boy, girl or they? Little it? If you think Mia’s character is supposed to be seen as ridiculous and Miranda as the sane one, you’d be wrong. Jezebel wrote of the “double Libra…vibe”:
Not only is that an incredible line, but this show has introduced an incredible foil to Miranda-by-the-books-Hobbes. I’m looking forward to what Mia names this child and how that will specifically torture Miranda.
By the books? Leaving your husband to sleep with women, including a nun? Right.
While the Mias of the world might be raising their kids with cosmic charts and identity checklists, at least these kids are alive to get a shot at figuring it out for themselves. In the end, it’s better to grow up with a weird parent who reads your horoscope than never get the chance to live at all.
Thankfully, this is the last season for this woke mess of a show, with only two bonus episodes left to close it out.
