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Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States generally protected a right to have an abortion. The decision struck down many abortion laws, and caused an ongoing abortion debate in the United States about whether, or to what extent, abortion should be legal, who should decide the legality of abortion, and what the role of moral and religious views in the political sphere should be. The decision also shaped debate concerning which methods the Supreme Court should use in constitutional adjudication.
The United States abortion-rights movement is a sociopolitical movement in the United States supporting the view that a woman should have the legal right to an elective abortion, meaning the right to terminate her pregnancy, and is part of a broader global abortion-rights movement. The movement consists of a variety of organizations, with no single centralized decision-making body.
The United States is a global outlier among developed countries on the issue of abortion, with the subject being divisible in American politics and culture wars to an extent not found elsewhere. There are widely different abortion laws depending on state.
NARAL Pro-Choice America, commonly known as simply NARAL, is a non-profit 501(c)(4) organization in the United States that engages in lobbying, political action, and advocacy efforts to oppose restrictions on abortion, to expand access to abortion and birth control, and to support paid parental leave and protection against pregnancy discrimination.
Rust v. Sullivan, 500 U.S. 173 (1991), was a case in the United States Supreme Court that upheld Department of Health and Human Services regulations prohibiting employees in federally funded family-planning facilities from counseling a patient on abortion. The department had removed all family planning programs that involving abortions. Physicians and clinics challenged this decision within the Supreme Court, arguing that the First Amendment was violated due to the implementation of this new policy. The Supreme Court, by a 5–4 verdict, allowed the regulation to go into effect, holding that the regulation was a reasonable interpretation of the Public Health Service Act, and that the First Amendment is not violated when the government merely chooses to "fund one activity to the exclusion of another."
The United States anti-abortion movement contains elements opposing induced abortion on both moral and religious grounds and supports its legal prohibition or restriction. Advocates generally argue that human life begins at conception and that the human zygote, embryo or fetus is a person and therefore has a right to life. The anti-abortion movement includes a variety of organizations, with no single centralized decision-making body. There are diverse arguments and rationales for the anti-abortion stance. Some anti-abortion activists allow for some permissible abortions, including therapeutic abortions, in exceptional circumstances such as incest, rape, severe fetal defects, or when the woman's health is at risk.
Governments sometimes take measures designed to afford legal protection of access to abortion. Such legislation often seeks to guard facilities which provide induced abortion against obstruction, vandalism, picketing, and other actions, or to protect patients and employees of such facilities from threats and harassment.
The Republican Majority for Choice (RMC) was a Republican organization in the United States dedicated to preserving legal access to abortion. The group also supported federal funding for all kinds of stem cell research, including embryonic stem cell research.
When Abortion Was Illegal: Untold Stories is a 1992 American short documentary film directed by Dorothy Fadiman. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short. The film consists of first person stories which reveal the physical, emotional and legal consequences of having or providing an abortion when it was a criminal act. The film is the first of three films called the Reproductive Rights Trilogy or "From the Back Alleys to the Supreme Court & Beyond."
The legality of abortion in the United States and the various restrictions imposed on the procedure vary significantly depending on the laws of each state or other jurisdiction. Some states prohibit abortion at all stages of pregnancy with few exceptions, others permit it up to a certain point in a woman's pregnancy, while others allow abortion throughout a woman's pregnancy. In states where abortion is legal, several classes of restrictions on the procedure may exist, such as parental consent or notification laws, requirements that patients be shown an ultrasound before obtaining an abortion, mandatory waiting periods, and counselling requirements.
Dorothy Fadiman is an American documentary filmmaker, director, and producer.
From Danger to Dignity: The Fight for Safe Abortion is a 1995 documentary film directed by filmmaker, Dorothy Fadiman. The film weaves together two parallel stories: the evolution of underground networks that helped women find safe abortions outside the law, and the intensive efforts by activists and legislators to decriminalize abortion through legislative and judicial channels. This film combines rare archival footage with interviews that document the efforts of those who fought to break the silence, change the laws and end the shame which surrounded abortion when it was a crime. The film is the second of the Abortion Rights Film Trilogy.
Motherhood By Choice, Not Chance is a 2004 documentary film directed by filmmaker, Dorothy Fadiman, which takes key moments from each of the three films from Fadiman's trilogy called, CHOICE: From the Back-Alleys to the Supreme Court & Beyond, by weaving together selected scenes and interviews. The film comes in two versions, the Activist and Educational. A Spanish Activist version was also created called, Maternidad por Elección, No por Obligación, with an introduction by Dolores Huerta.
Abortion in the District of Columbia is legal at all stages of pregnancy. In 1971, in United States v. Vuitch, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a law saying abortion was allowed for health reasons, which include "psychological and physical well-being". Consequently, the District of Columbia became a destination for women seeking abortions starting that year.
Abortion in Massachusetts is legal up to at least the 24th week of pregnancy, with exceptions allowing later termination of pregnancies in some circumstances. Modern Massachusetts is considered one of the most pro-choice states in the country: a PEW research poll finding that 74% of residents supported the right to an abortion in all or most cases, a higher percentage than any other state. Marches supporting abortion rights took place as part of the #StoptheBans movement in May 2019.
Abortion in Nebraska is legal up to the 12th week of pregnancy since May 2023, under enacted legislation implemented. In June 2023, a lawsuit was filed because it could potentially be unconstitutional - because it violated the "one subject per rule by the Legislature". The bill now an Act enacted by the Governor with an emergency clause, causing a law to go into immediate effect has two subjects - namely abortion and gender-affirming healthcare.
Abortion in New Jersey is legal at all stages of pregnancy. Abortion related laws were drafted by the legislature by the end of the 1900s. These laws would be addressed in court during the 1800s as they related to application in prosecutions of women for having abortions. During the 1940s, hospitals created committees to approve abortion requests with the goal of trying to reduce the number of abortions performed at them. Currently, there are no required waiting times and parental consent is not required.
Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, No. 19-1392, 597 U.S. ___ (2022), is a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the court held that the Constitution of the United States does not confer a right to abortion. The court's decision overruled both Roe v. Wade (1973) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), returning to individual states the power to regulate any aspect of abortion not protected by federal law.
A series of ongoing protests supporting abortion rights and anti-abortion counter-protests began in the United States on May 2, 2022, following the leak of a draft majority opinion for the U.S. Supreme Court case Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which stated that the Constitution of the United States does not confer any Reproductive rights, thus overturning Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court officially overturned Roe and Casey in Dobbs, resulting in further protests outside of the U.S. Supreme Court building and across the country, eventually to major cities across the world both in favor of and against the decision.
Kentucky Amendment 2 was a rejected legislatively referred constitutional amendment to the Kentucky Constitution, which was voted on as part of the 2022 elections. If enacted, the amendment would have declared that nothing in the Kentucky Constitution could be construed to protect a right to an abortion or public funding of an abortion.
