Dobbs Central: The Law, the Facts, and the Politics


EPPC is maintaining this page as a repository of the best resources on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, and we will update it regularly while the case is pending before the Supreme Court.

Law

The Court can’t avoid the question of whether to overturn Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

  • “Two Obstacles to (Merely) Chipping Away at Roe in Dobbs,” Sherif Girgis, SSRN, August 2021

    Summary: It is impossible to uphold Mississippi’s Gestational Age Act while Roe and Casey remain in place. Attempting to uphold the law without fully reversing those precedents would rest on groundless reasoning, even more vague than Casey itself, or logic that entrenches some sort of abortion right. Such a ruling would either exacerbate the Court’s reputation for politicized reasoning, ensure that abortion continues returning to the Court’s docket in the form of increasingly aggressive pro-life laws, or make it difficult for the Court to chip away at Casey and Roe later.

Against the stare decisis argument for Roe and Casey

Roe and Casey are poorly reasoned decisions, as even liberal scholars who favor legal abortion admit

The decision in Roe v. Wade was based on flawed history

Roe and Casey are unworkable and fail all other criteria for stare decisis

Judicial restraint supports overruling Roe and Casey

There is no other argument for a right to elective abortion

The Equal Protection Clause argument for a constitutional right to elective abortion fails

Unborn human beings should be considered ‘persons’ under the Fourteenth Amendment

Politics

This is the best available moment to reverse Roe and Casey

There is not sufficient support for nuking the filibuster and expanding the size of the Supreme Court, and political conditions are as good as we might ever expect

Most Americans don’t support the status quo created by Roe

Abortion-rights supporters’ public campaign to pressure the Court won’t succeed

U.S. abortion law is extreme compared to the rest of the world

Texas Heartbeat Act & Dobbs

Conservative Legal Movement

Dobbs is a make-or-break moment for conservatives

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