Opinion ID: 296751
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: pregnancy

Text: 35 Appellant contends that the board's 'failure to reopen or even consider the information that appellant's wife was pregnant and that his induction would cause extreme hardship was error and a denial of due process. He claims that in a case such as this, where the induction order ahs already issued, 32 C.F.R. 1625.2(b) 3 provides for reopening and reclassification when '   the local board first specifically finds there has been a change in the registrant's status resulting from circumstances over which the registrant had no control.' It is evident, appellant states, that the board cannot find a change unless all the information is submitted to it at a duly constituted meeting, which has not been held in his case. In short, appellant urges that he should have been placed in a III-A classification pursuant to 32 C.F.R. 1622.30 because of his impending fatherhood and resultant hardship should he be inducted. We find no merit in this claim. 36 The order to report for induction was mailed to appellant and received by him more than a month before he notified the board of the pregnancy. The child was not born until January 31, 1969, approximately 15 days after the induction process was completed. Section 1622.30(c), 32 C.F.R. provides: 37 'No registrant shall be placed in Class III-A under paragraph (a) of this section because he has a child which is not yet born unless prior to the time the local board mails him an order to report for induction which is not subsequently cancelled there is filed with the local board the certificate of a licensed physician stating that the child has been conceived, the probable date of its delivery, and the evidence upon which his positive diagnosis of pregnancy is based.' 38 Under the plain provisions of 32 C.F.R. 1622.30(c), appellant was not entitled to a reopening and reconsideration of his classification as a result of the pregnancy. This conclusion follows because appellant failed to timely notify the Board of his wife's pregnancy. The evidence shows that appellant's wife was more than three months pregnant when the order to report was mailed and more than four months pregnant when appellant notified the Board thereof. 39 The cases of Wright v. Local Board No. 105, 319 F.Supp. 509 (D.Minn.1970) and United States ex rel. Kellogg v. McBee, 2 SSLR 3253 (N.D.Ill. July 18, 1969), are relied upon by appellant in his reply brief. It is unnecessary for us to indicate our approval or disapproval of those decisions inasmuch as they are clearly distinguishable on the facts and are in no way controlling here. 40 In regard to the claim for a hardship dicharge, as pointed out by the district court, appellant never orally or in writing requested a hardship discharge and pregnancy alone is not primafacie evidence of hardship. In fact, appellant refused to accept the local board's offer to postpone the induction until after the birth of the child. Appellant never presented any facts in addition to the notice of pregnancy that would support a claim for a hardship deferment. 41 Clearly, appellant was not denied due process with respect to his claim for a III-A classification.