The fall of Roe v. Wade: the Dobbs ruling and the state abortion bans that followed

The Mississippi case gave the court its opening. In December 2021 the justices heard Mississippi's defense of its ban on abortions after 15 weeks, and its conservative justices signaled that they were prepared to overturn Roe.^[14][15] In January 2022 the Supreme Court refused to speed up the Texas clinics' challenge, over the dissents of its three liberal justices.^[16] Abortions in Texas had fallen 60% in the law's first month.^[17] In March, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that state medical licensing officials could not enforce the law, which effectively ended that federal challenge.^[18] Idaho became the first state to copy the Texas law, signed by Gov. Brad Little despite his doubts about its constitutionality,^[19] and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a ban on most abortions after 15 weeks.^[20] Oklahoma lawmakers passed a series of anti-abortion measures, including a near-total ban enforced through civil lawsuits, and the state's governor signed a Texas-style ban in May.^{[21][22][23][24]}

In early May 2022, a leaked draft opinion showed that a majority of the Supreme Court was prepared to overturn Roe v. Wade.^[25] Protests grew across the country.^[26] President Biden urged Congress to write abortion rights into law and voters to back candidates who supported them,^[27] but the bill failed in the Senate that month.^[28] Sen. Susan Collins said Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh had misled her about Roe in their confirmation hearings.^[29] The court's own inquiry, reported in January 2023, failed to identify who had leaked the draft.^[30]

The ruling set off trigger laws. Missouri banned abortion minutes after the decision under a 2019 law, the first state to do so,^[2] North Dakota's ban was set to begin on July 28,^[31] and Idaho's 2020 law banning abortion except in reported cases of rape or incest or to protect the mother's life was set to take effect 30 days later.^[32] In Wisconsin, doctors stopped providing abortions while it was unclear whether a 173-year-old ban could be enforced.^[33] President Biden spoke after the ruling,^[34] and Democratic leaders moved to protect abortion rights in the states where they could.^[35] Texas's own trigger law took effect in August, further restricting abortion there.^[36][37]

Court fights followed in the states. A Texas judge briefly blocked a nearly century-old ban before the Texas Supreme Court let it be enforced,^[38][39] and Planned Parenthood sued over the trigger bans in Utah and Idaho.^[40] In August, the Idaho Supreme Court let that state's bans take effect while the challenges went on.^[41] The Texas Medical Association said some hospitals had reportedly refused to treat patients with serious pregnancy complications for fear of breaking the state's ban,^[42] and at least 43 clinics closed in the month after the ruling, according to research by the Guttmacher Institute.^[43] In 2023, five Texas women who had been denied abortions sued the state, saying its bans had put them in danger.^[44] That August a judge ruled that Texas's ban was too restrictive for women with pregnancy complications,^[45] and in November the Texas Supreme Court weighed the scope of its exception for risky pregnancies.^[46] In December, Texas threatened doctors after a court allowed a woman to obtain an abortion,^[47] and some Texas counties banned people from using their roads to travel for an abortion.^[48] A study later found that infant mortality in Texas rose 8% after its ban.^[49] Indiana's near-total ban was cleared to take effect, and Georgia's Supreme Court upheld a six-week ban.^[50][51] By October 2026, Idaho's abortion fight had become a fight over voter power.^[52] On October 30, a federal appeals court lifted a ruling that had permitted abortions in Idaho for women's health.^[53] In November 2026, The New York Times reported that the Justice Department had opened a criminal investigation, led by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro's office in Washington, into the 2022 leak of the draft opinion.^[54]