On Jun. 24, 2024, it will have been two years since the Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade was overturned through the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case. In California, abortion is legal up to the point of a viable fetus which is usually about 24 weeks of pregnancy.
Roe v. Wade (Roe) was a 1973 Supreme Court case in which the ruling struck down laws that criminalized abortion, meaning that abortion was, and had to be, legal in every state. But after the Supreme Court overturned Roe in 2022, it was left up to the states to decide whether or not they will make abortions illegal.
The case that ultimately overturned Roe was Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (Dobbs). The Supreme Court case removed the constitutional right to abortions. Dobbs came to be because of a Mississippi act called the Gestational Age Act. The Act banned abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy but had a few exceptions such as a medical emergency.
The Jackson Women’s Health Organization was an organization aimed to help the fight for women’s health. One of their goals was to try to get the Gestational Age Act to be ruled unconstitutional because abortion is part of the 14th Amendment (which granted citizenship and equal rights to any person born in the United States and/or someone who is a U.S. citizen). They also argued that being able to control your body and health is a “common law tradition,” says the Cornell Law School.
Furthermore, the Jackson Women’s Health Organization took action against Mississippi (creating the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case). The trial started in Dec. 2021 and on Jun. 24, 2022, the final decision was released publicly and it was decided that the decision of banning abortion was left up to the states.
After the case, the Jackson Women’s Health Organization closed, but the leaders of the organization continued to lead the fight for abortion rights.
The debate over abortions is long-standing and not a simple debate at that. Pew Research says, “Overall, just 7% of all U.S. adults say having an abortion is morally acceptable in all cases, and 13% say it is morally wrong in all cases.”
Even though there are not many people fully on one side of the argument, the two major sides (pro-choice and pro-life) are split between Democrats and Republicans. With the majority of Republicans being on the side of abortion being morally wrong and the majority of Democrats believing abortion is morally okay.
Sean McWhorter, a US Government and Politics teacher adds, “A majority of Americans agree on the issue that abortion should be legal to some degree.” He also says that the states are divided: some states have abortion completely banned, some states have a few restrictions, and others don’t have any at all.
McWhorter says, “In some ways, [the Dobbs case] has impacted Federalism in the U.S. Some states have vowed to uphold the abortion rights, others have worked to enact outright bans or criminalize procedures.”
According to FindLaw, 13 states banned abortion immediately after Roe was overturned, six states and the District of Columbia allowed abortion in all stages, 18 states allowed abortions with limited restrictions, and a handful of states put restrictions on abortion that before Roe was overturned would not have been allowed. The decision of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ultimately put the decision of abortion up to the state. If you, or anyone you know need women’s health services click on this link.
