In the days since the Supreme Court released its opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, there has been intense debate about whether this is the last right that will be eliminated by the Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority.. We should mourn this right—and see with clear eyes what its destruction means.
Author: Mary Ziegler
Mary Ziegler is a legal historian and professor of law. She is a 2023-2024 Guggenheim fellow and Martin Luther King professor of law at UC Davis. Her newest book, Personhood: The New War over Reproduction, will be published by Yale University Press in 2025.
The Supreme Court’s Vision of Equality Likely Means the End of Abortion Rights—But It Could Mean Much More
During last week’s oral arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson, many Supreme Court justices said nothing about equality at all—but Justice Amy Coney Barrett stood out. She suggested that people relied on abortion “as a backup form of birth control in case contraception fails” because they wanted to avoid the burdens of both pregnancy and parenting.
If the Court is ready to put an end to Roe, the conservative majority might also try to redefine what the Constitution means when it comes to equality of the sexes.
The Pandemic Politics of Reproductive Health Care
The campaign to prove that abortion is not health care did not bring with the COVID-19 pandemic, and it won’t end there either.