Family related news included: a rush to the alter for some people in the LGBTQ community; a rise in the popularity of vasectomies among the young; and a review of a documentary about the long time marriage of two Hollywood icons. Lastly we have added a searing video – although made several years ago, the message is timeless.
Vanessa Romo, The New York Times, August 8, 2022 The high court's conservative-majority ruling included a concurring opinion by Justice Clarence Thomas, who wrote that the same rationale that was applied in the abortion case could also apply to the 2015 landmark same-sex marriage ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges. “[I]n future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court's substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell,” Thomas stated. (The 1965 Griswold v. Connecticut decision established the right of married couples to buy and use contraception, while the 2003 Lawrence v. Texas decision decriminalized consensual same-sex sex.) Thomas added, “[W]e have a duty to 'correct the error’ established in those precedents.”
Gina Bellafante, The New York Times, August 12, 2022 A documentary about Newman and Woodward’s movie-star marriage charts its electric beginnings at the Actors Studio and a half-century of fame’s infinite rewards and shortfalls…Woodward was by all accounts an excellent mother…However, an interview in the documentary has Woodward confessing what no mother ever feels permitted to say: that if she had to do it all over again she is not sure she would have had children at all. The professional sacrifices had piled up too high.
Alisha Haridasani Gupta, The New York Times, August 18, 2022 Vasectomy, a quick, outpatient surgical procedure that cuts the tubes that carry sperm, is one of the most reliable and cost-effective forms of contraception available — with almost none of the side effects or complications of birth control methods that are geared toward women.
Once the purview of middle-aged dads, this form of contraception is growing in popularity, according to doctors — and a few outspoken men on TikTok. Against the backdrop of an increasingly difficult environment to raise children, having fewer family planning options in a post-Roe world was “the nail in the coffin,” for many young men who recently scheduled a vasectomy, Dr. Doug Stein, a urologist noted.
By Lawrence R. Jones, Former Family Court Judge, Superior Court of New Jersey (Retired 2017) Point C is written and produced by Lawrence R. Jones, retired Judge of the Superior Court, State of New Jersey. In the author’s words: Point C is a five minute video fable with an important legal, psychological, and social message for both parents and professionals concerning family court litigation over the “best interests” of a child.