Notes on Abortion

Just got off a long Zoom call with some old high school friends, two of whom are extremely senior professors of constitution law, and several others are medical doctors.  Given the leaked Alito decision, the issue of abortion dominated the call.

There were several interesting ideas floated, including how our animus on abortion is so heavily driven by religion, that the discussion cannot be considered entirely apart from the separation of church and state.

Another fellow, this one from Georgetown Law School, but formerly a medical doctor, chimed in that the issue of when life begins is increasingly susceptible to scientific inquiry, i.e., when electrical activity begins in the heart.

An OB/GYN, recently retired after 38 years of practice, commented that there are late-term abortions in a small number of cases, for instance, when it’s revealed that the baby will be born without a brain, or a digestive system, or some other lethal malady.  He went on to say that, in the United States, there are literally zero such abortions of viable pregnancies.

I would venture that all 11 of us were astonished by Alito’s decision, if only on the basis that it flies in the teeth of the sensibilities of the vast majority of Americans, especially women, and seems so ill-timed, given the upcoming midterms.

How strange life in America is these days.