While the syllabus of the decision is informative, I prefer the full text of the Roe v Wade decision which may be found at:
http://www.tourolaw.edu/patch/Roe/
To me, the most important part is the second paragraph in section IX,B which is about 80% of the way through. It reads:
"Texas urges that, apart from the Fourteenth Amendment, life begins at conception and is present throughout pregnancy, and that, therefore, the State has a compelling interest in protecting that life from and after conception. We need not resolve the difficult question of when life begins. When those trained in the respective disciplines of medicine, philosophy, and theology are unable to arrive at any consensus, the judiciary, at this point in the development of man's knowledge, is not in a position to speculate as to the answer."
To me, this says that Mr. Justice Harry Blackmun, writing for the majority, chose to duck the central issue. The five associate justices, as well as the chief justice, concurred.
It’s too bad that none of them lived to see the advances which have occurred in the fields of obstetrics and genetics since 1973.
If these men had been able to see a sonogram showing the fully formed and full featured occupant of a womb swinging its arms and kicking its legs; if they could see a surgeon performing a corrective procedure on an occupant of a womb, if they had access to the testimony of geneticists whose research in the field of DNA have tracked human life to the point at which the 23 chromosomes in sperm unite with 23 chromosomes in the egg to form a new, unique, human life, they would not have been able to duck the central issue and, as the language clearly states, pass the buck to a future court.
It is now more than thirty years later, the development of man’s knowledge has advanced to the point where speculation on ‘the difficult question of when life begins” is no longer necessary. There is a definitive answer to the question.
Whether there is sufficient stiffness in the spines of those to whom it would fall to raise that question at this time is doubtful. During the past 30 years a new industry has emerged. Nearly 50 million abortions have produced many jobs and created many millionaires. It is a well accepted practice for politicians to trade their votes for political contributions. Abortion practitioners are lavish in their contributions. After all, they don’t want to see their cash cow turned into hamburger.
It will be interesting to see how things shake out.