The Supreme Court has eliminated the federal constitutional right to abortion — but we’re not backing down. We’re taking every step we can to keep abortion accessible for all people.
Learn More
- What IsRoe v. Wade?
- How Roe Was Overturned
- Even BeforeRoe, Abortion Was Common
- The Effect of Roe: Safe, Legal Abortion
- The Campaign to Overturn Roe
- Americans Want Abortion to Be Legal
What IsRoe v. Wade?
Roe v. Wade is the U.S. Supreme Court case that legalized abortion in the United States in 1973. Safe, legal abortion remained a recognized federal constitutional right nationwide for nearly 50 years.
From the start Roe v. Wade was flawed. It did say people had the right to abortion, but it never protected people's access to abortion. Lots of states passed laws that made getting an abortion nearly impossible. And in 1976, the Hyde Amendment, a national policy widely viewed as racist, became law.
How RoeWas Overturned
For years, anti-abortion rights politicians promised to appoint judges and justices hostile to abortion rights. At every turn, these politicians used their power to manipulate the nomination rules. Now, the Supreme Court is dominated by justices who are hostile to abortion rights.
On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court ruled in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization — a case involving a challenge to a. Mississippi ban on abortion at 15 weeks of pregnancy. The ruling overturned Roe — ending the federal constitutional right to abortion in the United States.
As a result, one in three women now live in states where abortion is not accessible. In the first few months after Roe was overturned, 18 states banned or severely restricted abortion. Today more states are working to pass bans.
The abortion bans that have taken effect since June 2022 have inflicted harm on Black, Latino, Indigenous, and other communities of color — communities where systemic racism has long blocked access to opportunity and health care
Find Out Where You Can Still Get an Abortion
Visit AbortionFinder.org for a directory of trusted, verified abortion providers and a state-by-state guide.
Abortion Has Always Been Common
Abortion has been around way longer than the United States government. Common law allowed abortion prior to “quickening” — an archaic term for fetal movement that usually happens after around four months of pregnancy. Medical literature and newspapers in the late 1700s and early 1800s regularly referred to herbs and medications as abortion-inducing methods; outlawing abortion only became a cause among U.S. politicians in the late 1800s.
Bans followed, with abortion illegal in all states by 1910. These bans pushed providers and patients into the shadows. Outlawing abortion completely failed to eliminate it; instead, the bans turned a safe health care practice into one with great legal risks. It subjected otherwise law-abiding people to surveillance, arrest, investigation, prosecution, and other criminal penalties. Police were often men, and their investigations forced women into humiliating circumstances — ordering them, their partners, and others to reveal personal details about their sex lives. Beyond direct criminal penalties, people lost jobs and families were disrupted.
With bans threatening their livelihoods and freedom, many doctors and midwives stopped providing abortion — and some started reporting their colleagues who still provided. Women who couldn’t afford to pay the few providers offering abortion, or who felt afraid of criminal charges, sometimes tried dangerous methods of self-managing abortion. When such methods led to complications and forced women to go to the hospital, patients could be reported to the police.
The Effect of Roe: Safe, Legal Abortion
The Supreme Court’s ruling in Roe v. Wade on January 22, 1973, decriminalized abortion nationwide. It protected the right to access abortion legally all across the country, and freed many patients to access the care they needed when they needed it — without fear.
“[T]he "liberty" protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment covers more than those freedoms explicitly named in the Bill of Rights… Several decisions of this Court make clear that freedom of personal choice in matters of marriage and family life is one of the liberties protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment… That right [to be free from unwarranted governmental intrusion] necessarily includes the right of a woman to decide whether or not to terminate her pregnancy.”
— Concurring Opinion in Roe v. Wade, by Justice Potter Stewart (Jan. 22, 1973)
For Many, Restrictions and Racism Pushed Abortion Out of Reach
Even with Roe in place, many people in the United States found that for them, the right to abortion was a right in name only.
Systemic racism, ongoing white supremacy, and coercive reproductive health policies undercut access to abortion in many communities even before Roe was overturned. Before 2022, whether you could actually get an abortion depended on your race, where you lived, and your access to money and health insurance.
For communities where centuries-old barriers have stood in the way of access to health care — Black, Latino, and Indigenous communities, rural communities, immigrant communities, people with disabilities, LGBTQ+ folks, young people, and people with low incomes — abortion was challenging to access.
With Roe overturned, abortion for many in these communities has been pushed even further out of reach.
The Campaign to OverturnRoe
While some states did everything they could to restrict access to abortion, for almost five decades the Supreme Court honored Roe’s core principle: that the Constitution protects a person's right to make their own private medical decisions, including the decision to have an abortion prior to fetal viability. The court reaffirmed constitutional protection of abortion access in multiple key abortion rights cases, including Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey and Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt.
So what changed? The makeup of the Supreme Court. Between 2016 and 2020, anti-abortion politicians in the Senate and White House angled to install three new Supreme Court justices — Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett — with records hostile to reproductive health and rights.
Americans Want Abortion to Be Legal
Abortion is common and accepted — and the data proves it.
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Nearly 1 in 4 women in America will have an abortion by age 45.
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Overturning Roe v. Wade was unpopular — and politically toxic for anti-abortion politicians. 85% of Americans believe that abortion should be legal.
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Regardless of age, background, or education level, the majority of people supported Roe before it was overturned.
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Acceptance of abortion is longstanding: A majority of Americans have wanted abortion to be legal for decades.
(Video) Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, transforming abortion rights in U.S. I ABC7 -
Reproductive rights champions in states across the country have worked to protect and expand access to abortion.
Beyond the numbers, personal stories show how abortion is essential health care — no matter the reason.
Find Out Where You Can Still Get an Abortion
Visit AbortionFinder.org for a directory of trusted, verified abortion providers and a state-by-state guide.
Get the FactsNot Backing Down
You deserve access to health care, including abortion, without barriers or political interference. You deserve the right to control your own body no matter where you live or how much money you make.
Planned Parenthood will work to get patients to care and care to patients. At the same time, Planned Parenthood supporters and abortion rights advocates are fighting for everyone to have the freedom to make their own decisions about their bodies and their lives.
Join the Fight
There’s no time to waste. Become part of the BANS OFF OUR BODIES movement.
FAQs
What exactly did the Supreme Court rule on Roe vs Wade? ›
In Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decided that the right to privacy implied in the 14th Amendment protected abortion as a fundamental right. However, the government retained the power to regulate or restrict abortion access depending on the stage of pregnancy.
Why did Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade? ›On Friday, the Supreme Court determined that women do not have a Constitutional right to choose whether to terminate their pregnancies and overturned the 50-year precedent established in Roe v.
What does Roe v. Wade mean for dummies? ›Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States conferred the right to choose to have an abortion.
What was Roe vs Wade for dummies? ›Wade was a 1973 landmark decision by the US Supreme Court that ruled that a state law that banned abortion was unconstitutional. The decision said that a woman's right to privacy extended to the fetus that she was carrying.
What did the US Supreme Court rule on abortion? ›By a vote of seven to two, the court justices ruled that governments lacked the power to prohibit abortions. They judged that a woman's right to terminate her pregnancy was protected by the US constitution.
How is Roe v. Wade unconstitutional? ›In Roe v. Wade, the Court ruled that a state law that banned abortions except to save the life of the mother was unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment.
What is everything Roe v. Wade protects? ›In recognizing the right to abortion, Roe was consistent with earlier Supreme Court rulings recognizing a right of privacy that protects intimate and personal decisions—including those affecting child-rearing, marriage, procreation, and the use of contraception—from governmental interference.
Which US court case led to the legalization of abortion? ›Roe v. Wade was a landmark legal decision issued on January 22, 1973, in which the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Texas statute banning abortion, effectively legalizing the procedure across the United States.
Does Roe v. Wade violate the 9th Amendment? ›In 1973, the court decided in Roe v. Wade that the constitutional right to privacy allowed for abortions, even though it was not explicitly listed. The idea comes from the 9th and 14th Amendments.
What amendments did Roe v. Wade violate? ›Roe claimed that the law robbed her of her right to privacy as protected by the combination of Bill of Rights amendments, and of her liberty as protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Does the 9th Amendment protect abortion? ›
In recognizing the right to an abortion under the Ninth Amendment, no such analysis is necessary. The text of the Ninth Amendment allows the U.S. Supreme Court to recognize this protected right without an inquiry into historical tradition.
What does Roe vs Wade overturned mean 2022? ›The decision overturned the longstanding Constitutional right to abortion and eliminated federal standards on abortion access that had been established by earlier decisions in the cases, Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v.
What did the Supreme Court decide about abortion today? ›Wade, ending right to abortion upheld for decades The U.S. Supreme Court has overturned the constitutional right to an abortion, reversing Roe v. Wade, the court's five-decade-old decision that guaranteed a woman's right to obtain an abortion.
What was the aftermath of Roe vs Wade overturn? ›Wade triggered abortion bans in Texas and other Republican-led states. According to a study released this week by the WeCount Project, in the two months after the reversal of Roe, there were 10,000 fewer abortions across the country; Texas accounted for more than half of the decline.
Is abortion restriction unconstitutional? ›Access to Abortion is a Fundamental Right
Local abortion bans are unconstitutional. The Supreme Court ruled in Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), that access to abortion is a fundamental right guaranteed by the United States Constitution.