Roe v. Wade

In 1970 “Jane Roe,” a pseudonym for a pregnant woman in Dallas County, sued District Attorney Henry Wade to challenge a Texas law making abortion illegal except to save a woman’s life. The case built on a 1965 Supreme Court ruling that had struck down a Connecticut ban on contraception for married couples and recognized a constitutional “right to privacy.”

Does the Constitution recognize a woman’s right to terminate her pregnancy by abortion?

Yes. The Due Process Clause protects a right to privacy that includes the abortion decision. The Texas law violated that right.

Justice Blackmun wrote that this right of privacy “is broad enough to encompass a woman’s decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy,” but must be balanced against the state’s interests in protecting women’s health and “the potentiality of human life.” In the first trimester, the decision belonged to the woman and her physician; in the second, states could regulate to protect maternal health; after viability, states could prohibit abortion except when necessary to protect the woman’s life or health.

Roe made abortion legal nationwide and became a central issue in American politics, mobilizing both the women’s movement and a powerful opposition among religious conservatives.

On June 24, 2022, in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Court held that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion and overruled Roe and Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey. Justice Samuel Alito’s majority opinion argued that the right was not deeply rooted in the nation’s history; Justices Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan dissented.