Court cases have a significant place in the history of legalized abortion in the United States. Many people don’t know the details of most of the cases, and only know a little about a few of them. One can always research the cases in more detail. We thought it would help to at least list the cases by name, year of ruling, and include a very brief summary of what happened in each case.
But first, when did abortion laws start to appear in the U.S.? In the years near the United States Civil War, Doctor Horatio Robinson Storer went around trying to get abortion made illegal in the various states. As a doctor, it was already clear that the unborn children were living human beings. The same Ohio legislative session that made abortion illegal also ratified the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Oddly enough, that amendment was later used to make abortion legal in the Roe v. Wade case about a century later. Several court cases would arise to make abortion legal or challenge its legality.
The official name of each case is provided. A link to the case is also provided, along with the year it was decided. Many rulings are called by shorter names. The shortest form of the names are underlined.
Griswold v. Connecticut
381 U.S. 479 (1965)
The ruling found that a right to privacy can be inferred from several amendments to the U.S. Constitution, and this right prevents states from making the use of contraception by married couples illegal.
This depended on the due process clause of the 14th Amendment, along with amendments from the Bill of Rights, even though that amendment focused on having the same treatment in legal processes between different groups of people. It arose after the U.S. Civil War to ensure that people of different races had equal treatment under the law. But the reading of it as a protection of privacy with an unnamed right would lead to further rulings that would allow injustice to occur within the protections of privacy.
Roe v. Wade
410 U.S. 113 (1973), later overruled by Dobbs (2022)
This is the central court decision that created current abortion law in the United States. In this ruling, the Supreme Court determined that women had a constitutional right to abortion, and that this right was based on an implied right to privacy from a combination of the 9th and 14th Amendments found in the Griswold case.
In Roe v. Wade, the court determined that a fetus is not a person. A fetus was deemed “potential life,” and thus does not have constitutional rights of his or her own. The court created a framework in which the woman’s right to abortion and the state’s right to protect life are defined by trimesters of pregnancy:
- 1st trimester: A woman’s privacy right takes primacy, and the state may not regulate abortion for any reason
- 2nd trimester: The state may regulate abortion only to protect the health of the woman
- 3rd trimester: The state may regulate or prohibit abortion to promote its interest in the life of the fetus, except where abortion is necessary to preserve the woman’s life or health.
Note: The Doe ruling that was made in conjunction with Roe led to health being defined so broadly that this could allow all abortions all of the time.
Doe v. Bolton
410 U.S. 179 (1973)
Roe v. Wade was modified by this case, which was decided the same day: Doe v. Bolton. The court ruled that a woman’s right to an abortion could not be limited by the state if abortion was sought for reasons of maternal health. The Court defined health as “all factors – physical, emotional, psychological, familial, and the woman’s age – relevant to the well-being of the patient.” This health exception expanded the right to abortion for any reason throughout pregnancy.
Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pa. v. Casey
aka. Planned Parenthood v. Casey, later overruled by Dobbs (2022)
505 U.S. 833 (1992)
Despite Justice Kennedy’s volunteered claim that he would love to overturn Roe, he would rule in favor of abortion in this case, ensuring legal abortion for decades to come. The court did expand state regulation of abortion, which would lead to numerous state laws over the years. The court maintained that states could require parental consent for a minor’s abortion (as long as judicial bypass is available), require a waiting period between seeking and obtaining an abortion, and require detailed “informed consent” including medical information about the abortion. The state could not require a signed statement from the woman that she had given notice to her husband, if any, prior to the procedure.
Casey abandoned the trimester framework, replacing it with pre- and post-viability tests for constitutionality. Roe was reaffirmed – although “liberty” replaced “privacy” as the alleged constitutional interest – on the basis of stare decisis (“let the decision stand”), to avoid the appearance that the court was vulnerable to political pressure, and because “people had organized their intimate relationships and made choices that define themselves … in reliance on the availability of abortion in the event contraception should fail.” Four justices dissented from Casey’s “reaffirmation of Roe.”
Stenberg v. Carhart
530 U.S. 914 (2000)
The court ruled Nebraska’s ban on partial-birth abortion was unconstitutional. The court cited two grounds for striking down Nebraska’s statute, and by implication more than two dozen other similar state statutes. These grounds included: the absence of an exception to the ban for the “health of the mother” (from Doe), and the court found the description of the partial-birth abortion procedure to be “vague” and potentially including other mid- and late-term abortion procedures.
Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization
597 U. S. __ (2022)
The court ruled that Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban did NOT violate the U.S. Constitution by a 6-3 decision. Furthermore, it overruled both the Roe and Casey precedents by a 5-4 decision. This ended a half-century of the court taking precedence over the democratic process. The ruling stated that, “The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion”. This sent the matter back to the legislatures to decide.