Abortion Symposium

by Reva B. Siegel & Mary Ziegler

To win over new supporters and counter equality arguments of the abortion-rights movement, the antiabortion movement began to equate the abortion-rights movement with the painful legacy of eugenics perpetrated by the state in the early twentieth century. This essay traces the movement dynamics that led to the creation of this argument, and then follows this abortion-is-eugenics argument from billboards to the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

by Neil S. Siegel

The Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization was based upon moral opposition to abortion and gender bias, instead of its stated reasoning—a draconian version of the “history and tradition” test.

by Andrew Coan

The ongoing debate over the Dobbs majority’s attempt to claim the mantle of Brown v. Board of Education has many threads. This Essay will focus on three—stare decisis, the interpretive method, and Herbert Wechsler’s famous “neutral principles” critique— none of which is as clear-cut as the defenders or the critics of Dobbs have supposed.

by Serena Mayeri

Though the Dobbs majority’s argument relies on a flawed and impoverished account of “history and tradition,” history remains relevant to constitutional law and political discourse about reproductive rights and justice, and is critical to our understanding of our political community today.

by Felicia Kornbluh

With a Supreme Court majority hostile to reproductive rights claims, it is a comfort and perhaps an inspiration to learn from history that there are a variety of other institutions and mechanisms through which people did, and still can, meaningfully advance their rights claims outside the Supreme Court.