Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization

Supreme Court of the United States · 2022 · Constitutional Law

597 U.S. 215 (2022)

Updated July 21, 2026

Constitutional LawSubstantive Due ProcessAbortionStare DecisisDue Process Clausedeeply rooted in history and traditionordered libertyrational basis review

Facts

Mississippi's Gestational Age Act bars a person from intentionally or knowingly performing or inducing an abortion if the probable gestational age is greater than 15 weeks, except in a medical emergency or in the case of a severe fetal abnormality. The Mississippi Legislature made findings about fetal development and about the State's interest in protecting unborn life and regulating abortion procedures performed after 15 weeks. Jackson Women's Health Organization and one of its doctors challenged the Act as unconstitutional under Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Mississippi defended the Act by arguing that Roe and Casey were wrongly decided and that the Act satisfies rational-basis review.

Issue

Does the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause confer a constitutional right to obtain an abortion? If not, should Roe and Casey be overruled, and what standard of review applies to state abortion regulations such as Mississippi's 15-week ban?

Rule

The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion. Under substantive due process doctrine, an unenumerated right is protected only if it is deeply rooted in the Nation's history and tradition and essential to the Nation's scheme of ordered liberty; abortion does not satisfy that standard. Because abortion is not a fundamental constitutional right, state abortion regulations are subject to rational-basis review and must be sustained if there is any rational basis on which the legislature could have thought the law would serve legitimate state interests.

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One of 10 multiple-choice questions for this case. Pick an answer to see why.

The legislature of Ohio enacts a statute prohibiting a newly popular elective medical procedure that ends a pregnancy at 10 weeks. Patients sue in federal court, arguing that the procedure is part of the liberty protected by the Fourteenth Amendment because decisions about bodily autonomy are important to personal dignity. The challengers cannot identify any pre-20th-century constitutional provision, case, or treatise recognizing a right to obtain an abortion.

Under the governing constitutional approach, what is the strongest reason the federal substantive due process challenge should fail?

Explanation. The majority held that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion. For unenumerated rights, the Court asks whether the asserted right is deeply rooted in the Nation's history and tradition and essential to the scheme of ordered liberty. The majority concluded abortion fails that test, so the challenge fails at the threshold.