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| “ | It doesn't matter what happens to me. The babies matter. | „ |
| ~ McClure demonstrating her fanaticism |
Celeste McClure is the secondary antagonist of the Law & Order episode "Life Choice". She is a member of an anti-abortion group who helps the group's leader bomb an abortion clinic.
She was portrayed by Bridgit Ryan.
Early life[]
McClure was a low-level member of Women For Life, an anti-abortion protest group. She assisted the group's leader, Rose Schwimmer, in picketing abortion clinics throughout New York City, in the process getting arrested several times for harassment and trespassing.
Shortly before the events of the episode, Schwimmer convinced McClure that protesting is not enough - she declared that they had to bomb an abortion clinic. McClure constructs a crude, fertilizer-based pipe bomb, and Schwimmer sneaked it into the clinic's bathroom before . She had assured McClure that no one would be hurt because the bomb had a 10-minute timer, which would give everyone in the building enough time to escape.
Unbeknownst to McClure, however, Schwimmer had reset the timer to go off in five minutes, not 10, in order to kill Mary Donovan, a Women For Life volunteer who was planning to get an abortion, in order to turn her into a martyr for the anti-abortion cause.
"Life Choice"[]
After Donovan unknowingly bombs the clinic, killing herself in the process, NYPD Homicide Sergeant Max Greevey and Detective Mike Logan question Schwimmer and McClure, who both deny knowing anything about the bombing; McClure, however, declares that Donovan saved countless unborn children by destroying the clinic.
Eventually, Greevey and Logan discover McClure's fingerprints on the bag of fertilizer used to make the bomb and they arrest her. Executive Assistant District Attorney Ben Stone and Assistant District Attorney Paul Robinette charge her with second-degree murder to get her to testify against Schwimmer, who they believe masterminded the bombing, but she refuses to say anything against her, declaring that it does not matter what happens to her as long as abortions are prevented. Schwimmer, meanwhile, does nothing to help her, content to let someone else take the fall for her.
After Greevey and Logan find out that Donovan was going to get an abortion at the time of the bombing, Stone confronts McClure with the knowledge that she is complicit in the death of Donovan's unborn child, as well as that of Donovan herself. Horrified and stricken with remorse, McClure says that Schwimmer convinced her to make the bomb and that she had met with her before planting it; she also swears that she did not know that anyone would get hurt.
McClure testifies at Schwimmer's murder trial, bursting into tears as she recounts how Schwimmer manipulated her into making the bomb that killed Donovan. After Schwimmer is convicted of second-degree murder and imprisoned for life, McClure enters into a plea bargain with Stone in which she pleads guilty to conspiracy charges and serves six months in prison.
External links[]
- Celeste McClure on the Law & Order Wiki
