Although the Richard Kimble reflects a mindset that opposes abortion, making the subject at least palatable for its American audience, this episode marks an early, if not first, instance in television history where the subject of abortion is out in the open.
The timeline of the story would put Marcie's abortion at about 1959, when most abortion laws throughout the USA would allow a physician to legally perform an abortion only under certain circumstances, such as danger to the life of the mother or to protect the mother's mental health or should the fetus suffer from birth defects. When Kimble refused to perform Marcie's abortion, he obviously judged that these or like criteria did not apply. Not until 1973 and the Roe v. Wade ruling in the U.S. Supreme Court did abortions become legally available without these constraints or considerations.