The U.S. Supreme Court made abortion legal nationwide on January 22, 1973, when it decided Roe v. Wade. That ruling held that the Constitution’s protection of personal privacy extended to a woman’s decision to end a pregnancy, and it remained the law of the land for nearly fifty years. The Court reversed itself in 2022, so abortion is no longer a federal constitutional right; each state now sets its own rules.
What the 1973 Ruling Did
In Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, the Supreme Court struck down a Texas law that banned abortion except to save the mother’s life. The vote was 7–2. Justice Harry Blackmun wrote for the majority, grounding the decision in the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and finding that its protection of personal liberty was broad enough to cover the choice to terminate a pregnancy.1Justia. Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973)
The ruling did not treat that right as absolute. It created a trimester framework that balanced the woman’s liberty against two government interests: protecting maternal health and protecting potential life.2Supreme Court of the United States. Roe v. Wade
- In the first trimester, the state could not interfere.
- In the second trimester, the state could regulate the procedure in ways related to the woman’s health, such as setting standards for medical facilities.
- In the third trimester, after the fetus reached viability, the state could restrict or ban abortion, but had to allow an exception when the procedure was necessary to protect the woman’s life or health.
A companion case decided the same day, Doe v. Bolton, 410 U.S. 179, struck down a more permissive Georgia statute and, more importantly, defined “health” in the abortion context. The Court held that a doctor’s medical judgment could take into account physical health, emotional wellbeing, psychological condition, family circumstances, and the patient’s age.3Justia. Doe v. Bolton, 410 U.S. 179 (1973) That broad reading of “health” shaped every later fight over how far states could go in restricting post-viability abortions.
One procedural detail is worth knowing. By the time the Court ruled, the plaintiff (known by the pseudonym “Jane Roe”) was no longer pregnant. A case normally becomes moot when the underlying dispute disappears, but the Court applied the “capable of repetition, yet evading review” exception, reasoning that pregnancy would almost always end before an appeal could be resolved. Without that exception, the case would have died before reaching a decision.
How the Standard Changed in 1992
Nearly twenty years later, Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833, reshaped the framework without eliminating the underlying right. A three-justice plurality replaced the rigid trimester system with a new test: the “undue burden” standard. A state regulation was unconstitutional before viability if it placed a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking an abortion.4Justia. Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pa. v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833 (1992)
Viability stayed as the constitutional dividing line, but the new standard gave states considerably more room to regulate before that point. The Court upheld several provisions of Pennsylvania’s abortion law, including a requirement that doctors inform patients about potential health impacts before the procedure and a mandatory 24-hour waiting period between that consultation and the abortion itself. It also upheld a parental consent requirement for minors, so long as the law offered a judicial bypass allowing a minor to seek a judge’s permission instead.5Supreme Court. Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey
The one provision struck down was spousal notification. The Court found that it would amount to an undue burden because of the realistic risk of domestic abuse. Casey governed abortion law for the next thirty years and opened the door to a wave of state-level restrictions tested in court under the new standard.
When and How Roe Was Overturned
On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court decided Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, 597 U.S. 215, overruling both Roe and Casey. The case involved a Mississippi law banning most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, well before viability. By a 6–3 vote, the Court held that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion and returned the power to regulate the procedure to state legislatures.6Supreme Court of the United States. Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization
Justice Samuel Alito wrote the majority opinion. He concluded that abortion is not “deeply rooted in the Nation’s history and tradition” and therefore does not qualify as a fundamental liberty protected by the Fourteenth Amendment. The majority noted that when the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified in 1868, three-quarters of states already criminalized abortion at any stage of pregnancy.7Constitution Annotated. Amdt14.S1.6.4.3 Abortion, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, and Post-Dobbs Doctrine The majority called Roe “egregiously wrong from the start” and rejected the argument that stare decisis, the principle of following prior rulings, required leaving it in place.
The doctrinal shift was substantial. With no fundamental right at stake, the Court replaced the undue burden test with rational basis review. Under that much lower bar, an abortion regulation is constitutional if the legislature could reasonably believe it serves a legitimate government interest. The Court listed several interests that satisfy the test, including preserving prenatal life at all stages, protecting maternal health, and preventing discrimination on the basis of race, sex, or disability.6Supreme Court of the United States. Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization
Rational basis review is the most deferential standard in constitutional law. In practice it means that almost any abortion restriction will survive a federal constitutional challenge. Over five decades, judicial protection for abortion moved from strict scrutiny under Roe, to undue burden under Casey, to rational basis under Dobbs.
Where Legality Stands Now
With federal protection gone, the Tenth Amendment’s rule that powers not delegated to the federal government are reserved to the states became the governing framework for abortion regulation.8Library of Congress. U.S. Constitution – Tenth Amendment A procedure that is legal in one state can be a felony a few miles across the border.
Roughly half the states moved quickly to ban or severely restrict the procedure after Dobbs. Thirteen states had “trigger laws” designed to take effect automatically if Roe were overturned. Others revived pre-Roe bans that had been unenforceable for decades or passed new restrictions. As of early 2026, abortion is banned or sharply limited in approximately 26 states and territories, while 25 states and the District of Columbia have laws affirmatively protecting access.
Voters in several states have pushed back through ballot measures. Since 2022, state constitutional amendments protecting reproductive rights have passed in California, Michigan, Vermont, Ohio, Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, and New York. Missouri, which had one of the strictest bans in the country, approved a reproductive freedom amendment in 2024. These amendments generally enshrine a right to abortion in the state constitution, making it much harder for a future legislature to reimpose a ban.
Where states have banned the procedure, the criminal penalties fall on providers rather than patients, and their severity varies. Some states classify violations as felonies carrying two to five years in prison. Alabama treats performing an illegal abortion as a Class A felony punishable by up to 99 years or life in prison. Fines range from $10,000 per violation in some states to $100,000 in others, and providers face license revocation in virtually every state with a ban.
The short answer to the original question, then, has two parts. Abortion was made legal by the Supreme Court in 1973 and remained legal as a matter of federal constitutional law until 2022. Since then, whether abortion is legal depends entirely on the state you are in.