Watch 'The Pitt's Two Lead Docs Get in Heated Abortion Debate in Exclusive Sneak Peek

Nearly a third of the way into The Pitt, the Max medical drama is clearly showcasing its propulsive energy. The series is equal parts ER and 24, as we go hour-by-hour through an emergency department shift at the fictional Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospital. So far, the action–and episodes–have flown seamlessly into one another, a showcase of the trials that come with treating a number of medical maladies that come and go.

It's rare, then, that the doctors of The Pitt stop down to talk through the next course of action, as they're almost always doing so on their way to treating another patient. However, when a topic is as hot-button as abortion, care must be taken. And that's the situation that Dr. Robby (Noah Wyle) and Dr. Collins (Tracy Ifeachor) find themselves in, as Parade can reveal in an exclusive sneak peek of this week's episode.

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Last week, a teenager (played by Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret breakout star Abby Ryder Fortson) had entered the ER, requesting an abortion. In the clip, Collins approaches Robby, having done some fetal measurements on the young woman. In doing so, she realized that results show the fetus is over eleven weeks old, which is the cutoff for legal abortion in the state of Pennsylvania. And those measurements lie in direct conflict with those Dr. Abbott (Shawn Hatosy) took the day prior.

"So what are you saying?" Robby responds bluntly. "That Abbott low-balled his measurements to help a teen get the abortion that she wants?"

Related: Everything to Know About The Pitt

The senior attending then gives two choices to Collins as to how to proceed, but they both lead to the same outcome: Fudging the measurements to put the fetus at under eleven weeks. Collins outright refuses. Even when Robby cites how steadfast she was in protecting a DNR order a couple of weeks ago, to her, falsifying medical records is where she draws the line.

"She's 17," Robby reasons. "She deserves a life."

"Of course, she does," Collins responds. "But I will not jeopardize my future in the process."

As she goes on to point out, if she gets caught for her misdemeanors, it would lead to her getting kicked out of the residency program. Robby, on the other hand, has tenure. He can't exactly talk about shirking the consequences when the worst thing that would happen to him would be a transfer to another hospital. And that comparison inspires Robby to take another course of action.

"I'll do it."

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Robby advises a shocked Collins to erase her imaging and measurements of the teenager. Instead, he'll make his own lowballed estimates to make sure she gets the abortion she desires. While his move leaves his contemporary stunned, it's par for the course with the confident swagger Wyle has brought to the character since the very beginning. Not to mention, given Robby's trauma in losing his mentor in this very same ward four years ago, a worst-case-scenario transfer out of The Pitt may not be a disaster.

While this story serves as the latest point of conflict between two of the most senior doctors in the ward, it also carries a different weight for Collins. As revealed in her first scene of the show, she is pregnant herself, though seems to be hiding this fact from everyone else at work. That surely colors her opinions about the patient, and whether she sympathizes or bristles at the idea of her getting an abortion past the legal threshold. Safe to say, while Robby has taken the matter out of Collins' hands, this is far from the last time we'll see her have to reconcile with the teen's situation–and her own.

Check out the video above for an exclusive sneak peek at this week's episode. New episodes of The Pitt hit streaming Thursdays at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on Max.

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