Roe v. Wade was decided on January 22, 1973, and overturned on June 24, 2022, when the Supreme Court issued its ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. For just over forty-nine years, Roe set the national standard for abortion rights in the United States.
The 1973 Ruling
The Supreme Court handed down Roe v. Wade by a 7–2 vote. Justice Harry Blackmun wrote the majority opinion for what was then the Burger Court, joined by six other justices. Justices Byron White and William Rehnquist dissented. White argued the majority had substituted its own judgment for that of state legislatures. Rehnquist took an originalist view, concluding that the drafters of the Fourteenth Amendment never intended it to protect a right to abortion.1Justia. Roe v. Wade
The case struck down a Texas criminal statute that made performing an abortion punishable by two to five years in prison, with a narrow exception only when the procedure was needed to save the mother’s life.1Justia. Roe v. Wade The Court grounded the ruling in the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause, interpreting “liberty” to include a right to privacy broad enough to cover the decision whether to end a pregnancy.2Congress.gov. Abortion, Roe v. Wade, and Pre-Dobbs Doctrine
Roe created a trimester framework. In the first trimester, the decision was left to the woman and her physician. In the second, states could regulate the procedure in ways related to maternal health. Once the fetus reached viability, states could regulate or ban abortion, with exceptions for the woman’s life or health.1Justia. Roe v. Wade A companion case decided the same day, Doe v. Bolton, addressed a Georgia statute and defined “health” to include physical, emotional, psychological, and familial factors.3Justia. Doe v. Bolton
What Happened Between 1973 and 2022
Roe’s original framework did not stay intact for the full forty-nine years. In 1992, Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey reshaped the doctrine. A joint opinion by Justices Sandra Day O’Connor, Anthony Kennedy, and David Souter dropped the trimester structure and replaced it with the “undue burden” standard.4Justia. Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pa. v. Casey
Under Casey, a state law was unconstitutional if “its purpose or effect is to place a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking an abortion before the fetus attains viability.” The Court upheld Pennsylvania’s 24-hour waiting period and informed-consent requirements but struck down a spousal notification provision.4Justia. Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pa. v. Casey
Casey kept two pieces of Roe alive: the constitutional protection for choosing abortion before viability, and the rule that states could ban it afterward with life-and-health exceptions. So for the final thirty years before it fell, the operating legal test was Casey’s undue-burden standard, not Roe’s original trimester rules. People sometimes miss that distinction, but it matters when reading about the law during that period.
The 2022 Reversal in Dobbs
On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court overturned both Roe and Casey in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The case involved a Mississippi law banning most abortions after fifteen weeks. By a 6–3 vote, the Court held that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion and called Roe and Casey “egregiously wrong.”5Justia. Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization Justice Samuel Alito wrote the majority opinion, using a historical analysis similar to the one Rehnquist had laid out in his 1973 dissent.
What the Reversal Changed
Authority over abortion law returned to state legislatures the day Dobbs was decided. Thirteen states had “trigger laws” designed to ban abortion automatically once Roe fell, and those bans took effect within hours or days. Within months, roughly half the states had either banned abortion outright or restricted it more than Roe or Casey had permitted.
States supporting abortion access moved the other way, passing statutes to protect the right and, in some cases, amending their state constitutions. The single national standard that had governed since 1973 was gone, replaced by a patchwork in which legality depends largely on the state where a person lives.2Congress.gov. Abortion, Roe v. Wade, and Pre-Dobbs Doctrine