Controversy Over Thomas

Goldberg, in opposing Thomas and his natural law views, states concisely what is wrong with Roe vs. Wade: “There is no medical or scientific consensus about when a fetus becomes a person. There are widely differing religious and metaphysical beliefs, precisely the kind of diversity the First Amendment was meant to protect.” Exactly so. That is why the abortion issue should be fought out in legislatures, by elected representatives.

The Roe decision squelched the very pluralism and diversity that Goldberg extols by, in Goldberg’s words, “siding with one . . . view in a divisive national debate.” It did this even though there is no provision in the Constitution empowering the justices to squelch the legislative debate, or to side with either view.

R. JEFFREY KELLEHER, Carlsbad