Roe v. Wade

Harvard Law Symposium on Roe 50 Years Later

A conference hosted by the Radcliffe Institute convened legal and historical scholars to discuss the future of reproductive rights. 

Mary Ziegler: Prepare for Legal Chaos Around Abortion

Roe author Mary Ziegler has chronicled the legal, political and cultural battles around abortion, and says the debate is far from over: "We're at the very beginning of something very confusing."

The Underground Network of Ministers and Rabbis Aiding Abortion Access Before Roe

Part of journalist Becca Andrews's new book looks at the Clergy Consultation Service on Abortion, which, before the religious right, offered a faith-based endorsement of abortion rights.

A Substantive Due Process Explainer: What Was the Basic Weakness of Roe?

The application of the 14th Amendment to extend broad guarantees of individual rights is recent; the history of the doctrine of substantive due process has more frequently been used to protect the interests of corporations and the powerful. It's time for a new legal approach.

Who Will Now Bear Costs of Crisis Pregnancies?

by Daniel K. Williams

"Perhaps neither Roe nor Dobbs represents a fully Christian way to distribute the human costs associated with crisis pregnancies.  And therein lies a dilemma for Christians who want to preserve human life and are unhappy with the results of Roe as well as the likely results of Dobbs."

Current's Forum: The End of Roe

A panel of Evangelical scholars considers the impact of the end of the Roe v. Wade era. 

What to Expect after Roe, Based on Research

by Diana Greene Foster

The author has systematically studied the consequences to women of having an abortion or having that freedom denied. She explains what to expect when states are free to outlaw abortion: more child poverty, more maternal death, and reduced opportunities for women, with the poor getting the worst of it.

What Would Madison Think of Originalism? Depends When You Asked Him

by Don Fraser

James Madison moved away from a strict constructionist position based on public necessity and acceptance of legislation based in implied powers. Whatever one can say about the originalist legal theory behind the leaked Dobbs opinion, it's not Madisonian. 

Historians Disagree with Alito: Roe Didn't Create Polarization

by Adam Serwer

The idea that the 1973 Roe decision created polarized politics around the Supreme Court ignores the decades-long backlash to Brown v. Board of Education and other decisions of the Warren Court and the contested politics of abortion before Roe. 

The Imminent Demise of Roe Signals More Christian Nationalist Attacks on Secular America

by David Sehat

Christian conservatives are targeting not just abortion or contraception, but the broader idea of a secular American republic. 

Law Prof: Securing Abortion Rights Means Finalizing the ERA

by Kate Kelly

The ERA would anchor a constitutional right to gender equality that could support a legal defense of abortion rights, and has already met the technical requirements for ratification. 

Historian Leslie Reagan on the History of Abortion and Abortion Rights

Leslie Reagan explains that there's more to the history of abortion rights than the laws cited by Samuel Alito criminalizing the procedure. 

We're Facing the Results of the Dems' Retreat from Secularism

by Jacques Berlinerblau

By trying to match the Republicans on bringing Christian faith into policy, Democrats abandoned the difficult but necessary struggles to define how a diverse society protects religious freedom for majority and minority faiths – and those of no faith. 

Will Businesses Get Beyond Superficial Feminist Gestures when Abortion Rights are at Stake?

by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela

Businesses have successfully integrated ideas about female empowerment into their marketing strategies. What will happen when women's status as both consumers and citizens is threatened by the rollback of reproductive rights?

The Antiabortion Movement's Victory in the War of Language

by Jennifer L. Holland

The antiabortion movement was able to overcome American skepticism of enshrining religious views into law and demands by women for full citizenship by turning the language of rights to apply to fetuses. It remains to be seen if this language will lead to a national ban on abortion in the name of fetal personhood. 

Republican Right is Forcing the Birth of the Society it Wants (and Most Americans Don't)

by Claire Potter

"Memo to radical conservative activists: despite your wettest fantasies, “libs” don’t cry at moments like this. We get angry, really angry. And we fight."

Originalists Seriously Misconstrue the Constitution's Silences on Abortion

by Laura Briggs

Samuel Alito would argue that the Constitution's silence on abortion means the founders recognized no right to it. But it's more likely they understood abortion to be a common act that didn't intersect with the business of the government. 

The Republicans are Accelerating the War on Abortion Rights

Although two thirds of Americans favor some abortion rights, legal historian Mary Ziegler says the new composition of the Supreme Court means state legislatures will boldly pursue what they really want: totally outlawing abortion. 

Law Prof: KBJ Hearings Show Right Won't Stop at Smashing Roe v. Wade

by Melissa Murray

Conservative skepticism of "unenumerated rights" indicates that they seek a judicial regime that peels back a host of rights implicit in the constitution that protect intimate freedom and the liberty of minority groups. 

Every Woman Needs Access to Abortion

by Claire Potter

"If SCOTUS overturns Roe, every civil right that Americans have gained since the 1940s is up for grabs. That’s not partisan propaganda: that’s the truth."