Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, Where Are We Now?

In Dobbs v. Jackson (2022), the Supreme Court overruled its decision in Roe v. Wade (1973) that had extended the Right to Privacy to apply to abortion. Crucially, by protecting abortion under the Right to Privacy rather than defining a specific right to personal medical decision-making, the Supreme Court left its decision in Roe v. Wade (1973) vulnerable to overturning. The Dobbs v. Jackson (2022) decision effectively sent lawmaking decisions over abortion back to individual states, eliminating the federally-protected right to abortion. In the wake of this decision, individual states have passed new restrictions on abortion: as of April 2026, thirteen states have enacted total abortion bans, with limited exceptions for saving the life of the pregnant person, putting lives at risk in states with already-limited access to reproductive healthcare.