'Law & Order: SVU' Finally Addresses Benson's Past Pregnancy Scare

This week's episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit was so jam-packed with drama and jaw-dropping moments that one of the most important scenes filmed for it did not make it to air. NBC released a deleted scene from "The Burden of Our Choices" Friday, showing Captain Olivia Benson opening up to Detective Amanda Rollins about her own pregnancy scare. The squad thought Benson might have had an abortion in the past, but the air was finally cleared in the cut scene.

"Amanda, just real quick about before: I had a pregnancy scare in college. I was with a boy I liked, I didn't love, not that it should matter. But I was 19 years old and I really wanted to do something important with my life," Benson (Mariska Hargitay) told Rollins (Kelli Giddish).

Rollins told Benson that she already has done so many important things in her career.

Benson went on to explain that she made an appointment at a clinic to get an abortion. On her way to the appointment, she got her period.

"I never did get pregnant after that and so, you know, do I regret never having a biological child—even now? Sometimes if I allow myself to wonder, but then, with Noah, we're happy," Benson said.

"I just—I didn't think that's what you were talking about," Rollins told her.

This seems like a huge moment to drop from the episode, but showrunner Warren Leight previously told E! News that personal moments between detectives are usually the first scenes cut.

The theory that Benson might have had an abortion dates back to an episode last season when Benson's nemesis, attorney Rob Miller (Titus Welliver), threatened to release a memo that could destroy Benson's career. The contents of the memo remained a mystery, but now we at least know that Benson once thought about having an abortion and did not ultimately have one.

"I haven't spent a lot of time worrying about the memo, I am aware that that's hanging out there. I am aware that the Rollins-Benson relationship, there's still something there that needs to be discussed," Leight told E! News. "Some of the things that happened while I was away…some of them I want to address, and some of them I have to address."

"The Burden of Our Choices" was filled to the brim important turning points for the SVU team. In the beginning, Rollins' daughter was baptized. Detective Katroina "Kat" Azar Tamin (Jamie Gray Hyder) also joined the team.

The main case centered on a 13-year-old girl who ran from Ohio to New York to have an abortion she knew her fundamentalist Christian parents would disapprove of. The baby's father was also her stepfather, and the SVU team fought for the girl's right to have an abortion.

The episode did include a brief personal mention from Benson. She revealed her mother thought about having an abortion after she was raped. Her mother did not have an abortion, and Benson was born.

New episodes of Law & Order: SVU air Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET on NBC.

Photo credit: NBC