Journal of the American Medical Association | August 3, 2023
Read the PublicationJune 24, 2023, marked the 1-year anniversary of Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization, when the US Supreme Court overturned nearly 50 years of precedent safeguarding the constitutional right to previability abortion, prompting 21 states to ban or severely restrict the procedure.1 Meanwhile, the federal government and multiple states have acted to preserve legal abortion. Litigation has risen steeply as advocates turn to the judiciary to restrict or expand abortion rights. The result is a nation with deep inequities in reproductive health care in which a safe and effective medical procedure is lawful in some states, but the same procedure incurs severe penalties in other states.