The Role of Compassion in the Law

Two important legal stories are buried in today’s news. 

One involves an Air Force ruling that changed the “undesirable” discharge of a gay sergeant— today, 91 years old— so that it now is an “honorable discharge.”

The other news story relates to a 32 year-old women who sought medical care at a hospital after attempting an at-home abortion in September 2015.

She was arrested and initially charged with attempted murder. Under an agreement reached with prosecutors, she pleaded guilty this week to attempted procurement of a miscarriage and was given credit for time served, a year in prison.

Here are synopses, quoting from the New York Times:

For more than half a century, Hubert Edward Spires has lived with the painful memory of being kicked out of the Air Force as a young gay sergeant in the 1940s. The word “undesirable” was printed on his discharge records. But now, at 91, Mr. Spires said he can finally be at peace with that part of his life. On Friday, he was awakened by a phone call to his Connecticut home and learned that the Air Force Board for the Correction of Military Records had agreed to change his status. This time, his discharge would be described as “honorable.” “It was a long haul,” Mr. Spires said on Tuesday in phone call from his home in Norwalk. “I got the confirmation that I had been looking for.” Click here for more.

…..

A Tennessee woman jailed for more than a year after trying to use a coat hanger to abort her 24-week-old fetus pleaded guilty on Monday to one felony count in exchange for her immediate release from jail. The woman, Anna Yocca, 32, sought medical care at a hospital after attempting the at-home abortion in September 2015, according to National Advocates for Pregnant Women, an advocacy group that helped with her defense. She was later arrested and was initially charged with attempted murder. Under an agreement reached with prosecutors, she pleaded guilty this week to attempted procurement of a miscarriage and was given credit for time served. Her case has alarmed abortion-rights advocates concerned by increasingly strict state abortion laws and the election of Donald J. Trump, who has expressed support for overturning Roe v. Wade and once said during the presidential campaign that women who have abortions should be punished.  Click here for more.