Reproductive Rights

Reproductive rights policy covers access to abortion, contraception, fertility treatments, maternal health care, and family planning services. The landscape shifted fundamentally on June 24, 2022, when the Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization overturned Roe v. Wade (1973) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), eliminating the constitutional right to abortion and returning the issue to individual states. Since then, 13 states have enacted near-total or total abortion bans, while others have expanded protections for abortion access; the patchwork creates dramatically different legal realities depending on where a person lives. Congressional Republicans have proposed federal abortion restrictions including a 15-week national ban; Democrats have sought to codify federal abortion protections through the Women's Health Protection Act, which has not passed the Senate. The Dobbs decision also raised uncertainty about the future of contraception access (specifically referenced in Justice Thomas's concurrence) and in vitro fertilization (IVF), after an Alabama Supreme Court ruling in 2024 briefly threatened IVF services by classifying embryos as children under wrongful death law. Maternal mortality in the United States is the highest among wealthy nations — and studies suggest abortion restrictions are associated with increases in maternal mortality. Internationally, the U.S. has moved against the global trend: more than 60 countries have liberalized abortion access since 1994, while only a handful have restricted it.