In 2022 the Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the two decisions that for almost fifty years had governed the constitutional law of abortion. Five cases, from 1973 to 2022, show the sequence: Roe recognized a right of privacy that includes the abortion decision, Casey kept Roe's essential holding under a new test, Gonzales and June Medical applied that test, and Dobbs overruled both.
Roe: a right of privacy
Roe v. Wade (1973), decided January 22, 1973. Texas criminal abortion statutes were challenged, and the district court had held them void on their face. Justice Blackmun, for the Court, concluded that "the right of personal privacy includes the abortion decision, but that this right is not unqualified and must be considered against important state interests in regulation." The Court left open whether the right was founded in the Fourteenth Amendment's concept of personal liberty, as it felt, or in the Ninth Amendment, as the district court had held. The right, the opinion said, was "broad enough to encompass a woman's decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy."
Casey: the undue burden
Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey (1992), decided June 29, 1992. The case concerned five provisions of the Pennsylvania Abortion Control Act of 1982, among them one requiring informed consent before the procedure. A joint opinion of Justices O'Connor, Kennedy and Souter held that principles of institutional integrity and the rule of stare decisis required that Roe's essential holding be retained. It applied a new test: "An undue burden exists, and therefore a provision of law is invalid, if its purpose or effect is to place substantial obstacles in the path of a woman seeking an abortion of a nonviable fetus."
Gonzales: a ban on a method
Gonzales v. Carhart (2007), decided April 18, 2007. Congress passed the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003, which prohibits a particular method of ending fetal life in the later stages of pregnancy. Justice Kennedy, for the Court, held that the challengers had not shown that the Act, as a facial matter, is void for vagueness, or that it imposes an undue burden on a woman's right to abortion based on its overbreadth or its lack of a health exception.
June Medical: admitting privileges
June Medical Services L.L.C. v. Russo (2020), decided June 29, 2020. Louisiana's Act 620 required any doctor who performs abortions to hold "active admitting privileges at a hospital . . . located not further than thirty miles from the location at which the abortion is performed or induced." The Act is substantively identical to the Texas "admitting privileges" law at issue in Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt. Justice Breyer announced the judgment and wrote an opinion for four justices, and the Court reversed the Fifth Circuit's judgment upholding the law. Chief Justice Roberts concurred in the judgment in a separate opinion.
Dobbs: Roe and Casey overruled
Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization (2022), decided June 24, 2022. Mississippi's Gestational Age Act prohibits abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, except in a medical emergency or in the case of a severe fetal abnormality. Justice Alito wrote the opinion of the Court: "We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled." "Roe was egregiously wrong from the start," the opinion said, and it concluded that "it is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people's elected representatives."
Where this leaves the law
Dobbs overruled Roe and Casey. Gonzales and June Medical were decided under the undue burden test from Casey. This post describes the five decisions, and it is not a guide to the law of any state today.
Sources
- Roe v. Wade (1973), 410 U.S. 113: Library of Congress, U.S. Reports
- Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey (1992), 505 U.S. 833: Library of Congress, U.S. Reports
- Gonzales v. Carhart (2007), 550 U.S. 124: Library of Congress, U.S. Reports
- June Medical Services L.L.C. v. Russo (2020): Supreme Court of the United States
- Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization (2022): Supreme Court of the United States
Updated November 2026.
This post was rewritten with AI (Claude) and reviewed by an editor before publication.
