LAUREL Thomas struggles to cope in the aftermath of her termination this Christmas in Emmerdale.
A special four hander episode of the ITV soap this Friday (December 11) will see Laurel and Jai making the heartbreaking decision to terminate their baby after a CVS test reveals the baby has Down’s syndrome.
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Laurel will clash with Rhona when she tells her about her baby dilemma, but she and Marlon will still agree to terminate the pregnancy.
And now it has been revealed that viewers will see Laurel reeling in the aftermath of her termination in the countdown to Christmas.
Full of self-loathing, viewers will see Laurel unable to stand Marlon’s kind words.
Following a furious backlash to the storyline from disability campaigners, producer Laura Shaw defended the plot.
Speaking to HOAR Online she said: “Please watch it, please just watch it before you make any opinions.
“We haven’t gone into this lightly. We’ve spoken to as many people as we possibly can, we’ve got the research. It’s based on real-life and I think people will see that.
“You are going to feel uncomfortable at times watching it but I hope that people will then understand why we’ve done it.
“It’s always a balancing act when you do stories like this but I truly believe that when you watch it you will see we’ve shown a balanced view.”
Actress Charlotte Bellamy – who plays Laurel – has said of the storyline: “Terminating a pregnancy is an emotive subject, but I think, as a programme, what Emmerdale does brilliantly is portray difficult stories that are important to tell.”
She added that she’s hopeful that “Laurel and Jai’s story will take the audience on the journey of them coming to this conclusion and having some understanding why they do”.
“There are some very powerfully written scenes that I hope will give a fair portrayal of their situation.
“When I embarked on this storyline I was well aware of the responsibility of the subject matter, but the scripts have been so well written and I think the story is told fairly.”
