Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2022
Abstract
The Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturns nearly fifty years of precedent and radically changes abortion law, throwing both sides of the debate into uncharted territory. This essay, published in the immediate aftermath of Dobbs, offers some initial thoughts about what the changed legal landscape means for abortion rights legal advocacy. Our focus in recent writings has been to identify concrete measures federal and state actors can take to secure abortion access after Dobbs. Here, we investigate a more overarching concern: what fundamental values and strategies should govern the abortion rights movement going forward? To that end, we identify three themes: (1) trying creative, sometimes novel, approaches to force the antiabortion movement into a defensive posture, (2) expecting and embracing disagreement among abortion rights supporters, and (3) playing the long game. This will take a paradigm shift in movement strategy—one that is in some ways modeled after the now-successful movement to overturn Roe. Such a paradigm shift takes will, time, and responsiveness to change.
Recommended Citation
David S. Cohen, Greer Donley & Rachel Rebouché,
Re-Thinking Strategy After Roe,
75
Stanford Law Review Online
1
(2022).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.pitt.edu/fac_articles/532
Included in
Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons, Constitutional Law Commons, Family Law Commons, Gender and Sexuality Commons, Health Law and Policy Commons, Law and Gender Commons, Obstetrics and Gynecology Commons, Sexuality and the Law Commons, State and Local Government Law Commons, Women's Health Commons