chevron-down Created with Sketch Beta.
July 01, 2022

USSC Overturns Roe v. Wade

In Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, the U.S. Supreme Court considered the constitutionality both of Roe v. Wade and of the Mississippi Gestational Age Act, a Mississippi law prohibiting abortion after 15 weeks. The Court found no constitutional right to abortion, overturning Roe v. Wade, and upholding the Mississippi law based on rational basis review. The court held that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment does not expressly confer a right to abortion and that the right to obtain an abortion was not “deeply rooted in the Nation’s history and tradition.” The court also rejected accepting Roe v. Wade under the doctrine of stare decisis by engaging in a five-part analysis that considered the Court’s error in its previous decision, the quality of the Court’s reasoning, the decision’s effect on other areas of law, and other parties’ reliance interests on the decision. By overturning Roe v. Wade, the Court returned abortion regulation to state legislatures and adopted a rational-basis test for abortion regulations, similar to the standard for other health and safety policies. 

Entity:
Topic:
The material in all ABA publications is copyrighted and may be reprinted by permission only. Request reprint permission here.