Dobbs Decision
The June 2022 Dobbs Supreme Court decision reversed the Roe v. Wade (Roe) and Planned Parenthood of Southeastern PA v. Casey (Casey) decisions. Abortion access rights were, therefore, returned to State legislatures. In writing the Dobbs majority opinion, Justice Alito ignored legal precedent and, instead relied on the exact wording (textual reading) of the Constitution from 1787. He also relied on State laws criminalizing abortion dating from 1825 through 1952 [1].
However, Alito also disregarded the 9th Amendment (James Madison's catch-all Amendment) as well as the fact that women had no specific rights in the 18th and 19th centuries. Women did not have the right to vote until 1920 (19th Amendment). He also ignored the 4000-year history of abortion. In short, Alito's decision appeared to be a conservative, Federalist Society opinion awaiting the right lawsuit.
[1] Side note: 34 of [the] 40 states and territories [in existence at the time] adopted laws making abortion a felony at any stage of pregnancy because of an AMA (American Medical Association) 20-year crusade (1860 - 1880) to eliminate the practice of midwifery. Physicians at the time viewed midwives because physicians were losing patients to competition willing to perform abortions. However, in the mid- to late-19th century neither Catholics not Protestants were involved in the anti-abortion programs. The states and territories as well as the adopted laws were stated in Appendices A and B of the Dobbs Decision. The appendices have been uploaded below the decision.
Note Source:
American Journal of Economics and Sociology, vol. 76, No. 1, January 2017
"A Social History of Christian Thought on Abortion: Ambiguity vs. Certainty in Moral Debate" [a]
pages 196 - 198
https://www.jstor.org/stable/45129365?seq=78
[a] A copy of the 107-page Article "A Social History of Christian Thought on Abortion: Ambiguity vs. Certainty in Moral Debate" has been uploaded to this site. The number of pages in the uploaded copy has been reduced from the original 109 to 67 by reducing the page-border size from 2 inches to 0.5. I have also highlighted important verbiage within the document. The uploaded document also includes the article footnotes and bibliography.
‘A revolutionary ruling – and not just for abortion’:
A Supreme Court scholar explains the impact of Dobbs
This article discusses the implications of the historic DOBBS, STATE HEALTH OFFICER OF THE MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, ET AL. v. JACKSON WOMEN’S HEALTH ORGANIZATION ET AL. (Dobbs) Supreme Court decision.
I obtained the article from a website called The Conversation.
Note: I have made notations in orange italics providing the page(s) where the quotes cited within in the article are located in the 223-page decision.
Source:
The Conversation
By Morgan Marietta
Published: June 24, 2022 2:55pm EDT Updated: June 24, 2022 3:24pm EDT
DOBBS, STATE HEALTH OFFICER OF THE MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, ET AL. v. JACKSON WOMEN’S HEALTH ORGANIZATION ET AL. (Dobbs) Supreme Court decision
Below is the complete 213-page Dobbs decision. I have highlighted many of the important points within both the Syllabus and Justice Alito's majority Opinion in yellow.
I have also used orange highlight to identify the statements which were cited in the above article.
Dobbs Decision, Appendices A & B
Appendix A: Contains statutes criminalizing abortion at all stages of pregnancy in the States in 1868.
Appendix B: Contains statutes criminalizing abortion at all stages in each of the Territories that became States and in the District of Columbia.
The statutes contained in each appendix are reported in chronological order of enactment.