Instead of being crowded into obscurity by an overabundance of television crime shows, "Law & Order" has entered its 20th season like gangbusters, with some of its strongest episodes in years. The show is an institution, not only building and maintaining a loyal following over the past 20 years, but doing so despite innumerable cast changes that would have killed lesser shows.

Tonight the venerable crime drama takes on a topic to which it is no stranger: abortion. More specifically, the killing of doctors who perform them. But tonight, the episode (ripped from the headlines, of course) essentially becomes a moral debate which challenges the characters closest to the arrest and prosecution of the killer to reexamine their own beliefs.

We talked to the show's executive producer and head writer Rene Balcer this week about that episode and about other things, including the Lt. Van Buren cancer storyline and NBC's decision to drown viewers with reality shows and Jay Leno in prime time. Balcer, who is also the creator of "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," which currently airs on the USA network, told us that tonight's episode "turns conventional wisdom on its head."