Jane Roe won Roe v. Wade. On January 22, 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7–2 that the Constitution protects a woman’s decision to have an abortion and struck down a Texas law that made the procedure a crime except to save the mother’s life.1Justia. Roe v. Wade That victory held for nearly half a century. In 2022, the Supreme Court overturned it, and the constitutional right Roe established no longer exists.2Justia. Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization
Who Jane Roe and Henry Wade Were
Jane Roe was a pseudonym. The real plaintiff was Norma McCorvey, a pregnant Texas woman who wanted an abortion but could not legally obtain one under state law. Two young attorneys, Linda Coffee and Sarah Weddington, filed the challenge on her behalf in federal district court in 1970. McCorvey never received the abortion she sought; the litigation moved slowly, and she gave birth and placed the baby for adoption while the case was still pending. Her circumstances served as the legal vehicle for the constitutional question even though the ruling came too late to affect her own pregnancy.
Henry Wade was the District Attorney of Dallas County, Texas. He was the named defendant because his office prosecuted violations of the state’s criminal abortion statutes, and his job in the case was to defend Texas’s authority to enforce them. He lost.
What the 7–2 Ruling Actually Did
Justice Harry Blackmun wrote the majority opinion. He was joined by Chief Justice Warren Burger and Justices William Douglas, William Brennan, Potter Stewart, Thurgood Marshall, and Lewis Powell. Justices Byron White and William Rehnquist dissented, arguing that the Court had created a new constitutional right the framers never intended.1Justia. Roe v. Wade
The ruling did more than void the Texas statute. Because it established a constitutional right, it reached every similar law in the country. At the time, most states had criminal abortion statutes on the books, many dating to the mid-1800s. After Roe, none of those blanket prohibitions could be enforced.3Oyez. Roe v. Wade
To manage the balance between the woman’s right and the state’s interests in maternal health and potential life, the Court built a trimester framework: no state interference in the first trimester, health-based regulation permitted in the second, and permitted prohibition after fetal viability except when the mother’s life or health was at stake.4Legal Information Institute. Roe v. Wade (1973)
Why the Court Sided With Roe
The word “privacy” does not appear in the Constitution, but the Court had already recognized a right to privacy in earlier cases, notably Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), which struck down a state ban on contraceptives for married couples. Roe extended that reasoning, concluding that the right was “broad enough to encompass a woman’s decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy.”5Constitution Annotated. Abortion, Roe v. Wade, and Pre-Dobbs Doctrine
The majority anchored that right in the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which forbids states from depriving anyone of “life, liberty, or property” without due process of law. Treating abortion as a fundamental right meant any state law restricting it had to survive strict scrutiny, the most demanding standard of judicial review.3Oyez. Roe v. Wade
How the Win Was Narrowed in 1992
Roe’s framework did not survive intact. In Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey (1992), the Supreme Court kept the central holding, that the Constitution protects abortion before viability, but scrapped the trimester system. In its place came the “undue burden” test: states could regulate abortion before viability as long as the regulation did not put a “substantial obstacle” in the path of a woman seeking one. After viability, states could ban the procedure, subject to an exception for the life or health of the mother.6Justia. Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pa. v. Casey
Casey gave states considerably more room to legislate. Waiting periods, informed consent requirements, and parental involvement rules for minors all became easier to defend. The right Roe recognized survived, but on softer footing.
How the Win Was Undone in 2022
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 15 weeks, well before viability. By 6–3, the Court upheld the Mississippi law and ruled that the Constitution does not protect a right to abortion.2Justia. Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization
Justice Samuel Alito wrote the majority opinion, joined by Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett. Chief Justice John Roberts concurred in upholding Mississippi’s 15-week ban but would not have overruled Roe entirely. Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan dissented.
The majority reasoned that a right protected by the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause must be “deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition.” Because three-quarters of states criminalized abortion when the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified in 1868, the Court concluded that abortion did not meet that test. Regulation of the procedure returned to state legislatures.7Legal Information Institute. Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022)
Without constitutional protection, state abortion laws no longer face heightened scrutiny. Courts now evaluate them under rational-basis review, the most lenient standard in constitutional law, which asks only whether a law is rationally related to a legitimate government interest. Most laws pass that test easily.
What the Answer Means Today
So the honest answer has two layers. Jane Roe won in 1973, and for nearly 50 years that win meant the Constitution guaranteed abortion access nationwide. That guarantee is gone.
As of early 2026, 13 states enforce near-total abortion bans: Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia. Several other states cut off access as early as six weeks, before many people know they are pregnant. Others have gone the opposite direction, writing abortion protections into their state constitutions or passing statutes that explicitly guarantee access. Whether a person can obtain an abortion now depends almost entirely on which state they are in.