As usual, well done doctor. As a 75 year old former teacher/lawyer, the questions discussed in this essay were very much a part of my life as a young man, Army reservist, law student, etc. One of the reasons the draft ended in Jan. 1973 is because that's when the U.S. ended its combat role in Vietnam. We didn't need such a huge military after that. (the fall of Saigon was April 1975 I believe, so the South Vietnamese held that off for two years w/o us.). In law school, we read Roe v. Wade and understood it to be a complicated case bound to be changed since it contained the seeds of its own destruction. The Court in Roe, majority opinion written by Justice Harry Blackmun, a Nixon appointee, tried to balance a few things like health of mother, viability of the fetus, etc., and set viability at 24 weeks, or beginning of third trimester. But legal readers knew that if modern science could set viability earlier, which it has done, to 22 weeks, or 20, or 18, and so forth, then Roe couldn't stand at 24. Also, if modern science could extend the life expectancy of the mother greatly, then why not allow fewer abortions, since the mother could live longer. Essentially, it was on a collision course with itself. The underpinnings of Roe were found in a 1965 case, Griswold v. Connecticut, where the Court held that though the word privacy wasn't actually found in the Constitution, it was out there on the penumbra of other rights that were enumerated in the document. Griswold extended this privacy right to the marital bedroom, and Roe extended it to the uterus. And now we have Dobbs, which essentially says it's up to each state, not a very long-lasting solution in reality. The issues presented were tough. When Roe was first decided, many couldn't believe it, and there were many Catholics and others who placed bumper stickers on their cars saying Abortion is Murder. The issues continue to remain tough. One final thought on the draft, we still had it until 1973 when the war became increasingly Vietnamized, but in Jan. 1970, I believe, we left less to local draft boards to fill draft quotas, and began a lottery system. Though I was already in the Army reserves as a new 2Lt., my draft # was either 8 or 11, I forgot which. It didn't matter because I was already in, but it would have if I were drafted because they went up to #80 in the first month. Not fair to so many when their friends who were one day older, or one day younger had numbers like 331, and were bound to be draft exempt. Luck of the draw for 3 years.
As usual, well done doctor. As a 75 year old former teacher/lawyer, the questions discussed in this essay were very much a part of my life as a young man, Army reservist, law student, etc. One of the reasons the draft ended in Jan. 1973 is because that's when the U.S. ended its combat role in Vietnam. We didn't need such a huge military after that. (the fall of Saigon was April 1975 I believe, so the South Vietnamese held that off for two years w/o us.). In law school, we read Roe v. Wade and understood it to be a complicated case bound to be changed since it contained the seeds of its own destruction. The Court in Roe, majority opinion written by Justice Harry Blackmun, a Nixon appointee, tried to balance a few things like health of mother, viability of the fetus, etc., and set viability at 24 weeks, or beginning of third trimester. But legal readers knew that if modern science could set viability earlier, which it has done, to 22 weeks, or 20, or 18, and so forth, then Roe couldn't stand at 24. Also, if modern science could extend the life expectancy of the mother greatly, then why not allow fewer abortions, since the mother could live longer. Essentially, it was on a collision course with itself. The underpinnings of Roe were found in a 1965 case, Griswold v. Connecticut, where the Court held that though the word privacy wasn't actually found in the Constitution, it was out there on the penumbra of other rights that were enumerated in the document. Griswold extended this privacy right to the marital bedroom, and Roe extended it to the uterus. And now we have Dobbs, which essentially says it's up to each state, not a very long-lasting solution in reality. The issues presented were tough. When Roe was first decided, many couldn't believe it, and there were many Catholics and others who placed bumper stickers on their cars saying Abortion is Murder. The issues continue to remain tough. One final thought on the draft, we still had it until 1973 when the war became increasingly Vietnamized, but in Jan. 1970, I believe, we left less to local draft boards to fill draft quotas, and began a lottery system. Though I was already in the Army reserves as a new 2Lt., my draft # was either 8 or 11, I forgot which. It didn't matter because I was already in, but it would have if I were drafted because they went up to #80 in the first month. Not fair to so many when their friends who were one day older, or one day younger had numbers like 331, and were bound to be draft exempt. Luck of the draw for 3 years.