Abortion rights: the fall of Roe

International Bar Association: Global Insight podcasts

The United States Supreme Court has overturned the constitutional right to abortion. Ruling in the case Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Court went beyond Mississippi’s request to allow it to ban abortion after 15 weeks’ pregnancy and fully overturned the two previous Supreme Court rulings, Roe and Casey, that had for 49 years made it unconstitutional to outlaw abortions pre-viability – that is, before a foetus could survive outside the womb, at around 24 weeks. Now, states will be able to restrict and ban abortion at any point in pregnancy.