‘Girls on the Bus’: Melissa Benoist & Team on Tackling Sadie’s Abortion Storyline
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[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for The Girls on the Bus Season 1, Episode 8, “Life is a Highway.”]
The Girls on the Bus has tackled a number of topical subjects over its run so far on Max, but none more frustrating than journalist Sadie’s (Melissa Benoist) quest to secure abortion pills in the episode, “Life is a Highway.”
After discovering she’d become pregnant after a spontaneous hook-up with an on-again-off-again fling, Malcolm, a.k.a. Loafers (Brandon Scott), Sadie’s clock for an abortion began ticking as she opted to go with pills. The trouble with that? She is constantly traveling through different states where laws differ.
Due to this metaphorical roadblock, Sadie was forced to cross state lines with the help of conservative reporter Kimberlyn (Christina Elmore) as she went to pick up the mailed pills in a P.O. Box. The only problem? She didn’t make it to the post office in time, being forced to wait until the next day. The ordeal is eventually sorted, but reminds viewers of the hardships some women face in order to receive basic medical care.
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“We knew we had this platform and… while we were in the midst of shooting it, that laws were changing, and I’m really proud of it because I think it’s a testament to our showrunner, Rina Mimoun,” Benoist tells TV Insider of the storyline. “She was really brave in her storytelling. We also had Kyra Sedgwick directing that episode, who’s a massive advocate for women’s rights and is very vocal about that,” the performer remarks.
“So it felt like the puzzle was there to really tell an authentic, truthful version of that story of a woman who knew exactly what she wanted, had no shame in her decision, that it wasn’t the act of having an abortion that was agonizing. It was the fact that it was so hard for her to get the treatment she needed.”
As Benoist points out, above, Mimoun is a passionate advocate of sharing female-driven stories and promoting women’s rights. When it comes to abortion, Mimoun says, “It is a cause that’s been important to me since as early as I can remember, my mom instilled it in me and I was on Planned Parenthood since I was 16.”
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Part of Mimoun’s drive to tell this particular story comes from back in the day working on Everwood with Greg Berlanti. “We were doing this story about abortion. And I remember watching him fight so many battles to get that story told to the point we had to change almost every element of it. And they threatened to stop production and he said, ‘stop production.’ It was an amazing thing to see. And so from that moment on, I realized it’s really important to normalize abortion and these medical services that are required by women all over.”
For Amy Chozick who wrote the book Chasing Hillary upon which the series is inspired, she commends Mimoun, saying, “Rina looks at storytelling through the lens of women’s rights in every aspect of production she has. So I just was really proud to be a part of that. I think it’s really what drew me to television.”
As for working with the changing laws, the team reveals some last-minute edits to the scripts were made in order to accommodate the most recent developments. “We literally took a U.S. map out,” Chozick, who serves as an executive producer recalls. “It was Rina’s stroke of genius when we came up with the idea that it’s Kimberlyn who drives her. It’s not just that Sadie is losing her mind [because] she can’t get the pills. It’s that Kimberlyn drives her, connecting the political message to the personal and to the friendship in a really beautiful way.”
By the end of the episode, Sadie is back at her homebase hotel with Kimberlyn, Grace (Carla Gugino), and Lola (Natasha Behnam) who support her as she goes through the abortion experience, proving that no matter how frustrating or difficult the red tape might be, that women can persist against uneven odds. What did you think of the episode? Sound off in the comments section, below, and don’t miss more of The Girls on the Bus as the season continues on Max.
The Girls on the Bus, Thursdays, Max
