Cases

In Roe v. Wade (1973) the US Supreme Court ruled 7–2 that the Constitution's guarantee of liberty under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment includes a right to privacy broad enough to cover a woman's decision to have an abortion. It set a trimester framework, later replaced in Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992) by a viability line and an "undue burden" test. For nearly 50 years it was among the most debated rulings in American law. On June 24, 2022, in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, the Court overruled Roe and Casey 6–3, holding that the Constitution confers no right to abortion and returning the question to the states. This case asks a legal question, not a policy one: was Roe sound constitutional law? You can think abortion should be legal and still believe Roe was poorly reasoned (as some liberal scholars, including Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, argued about its breadth), or oppose abortion and still accept a privacy-based right as doctrine. Arguments that Roe was right: it built on a line of privacy and bodily-autonomy precedents (Griswold v. Connecticut, Eisenstadt v. Baird); the Fourteenth Amendment protects liberties not explicitly listed; and 50 years of reliance mattered. Arguments that it was wrong: abortion is not mentioned in the Constitution and was not a recognised right when the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified; the trimester scheme read like legislation; and on a contested moral question the Court should leave decisions to elected legislatures.