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The Future of Population Health (Volume 101)
Quarterly Article
Paula M. Lantz
Katherine Michelmore
Michelle H. Moniz
Okeoma Mmeje
William G. Axinn
Kayte Spector-Bagdady
Sep 23, 2026
Jun 29, 2026
Jun 12, 2026
Back to The Milbank Quarterly
Policy Points:
On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) issued a historic decision in the Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization case1 overturning previous court rulings regarding privacy rights and abortion, including the Roe v Wade decision of 1973.2 The Dobbs decision reversed a nearly 50-year precedent of constitutionally protected federal access to abortion nationwide, relegating its legal oversight back to individual states and territories. In the absence of a constitutionally protected right to abortion care, states are now free to set strict legal parameters around access to abortion.3
It is predicted that at least one-half of US states will either fully ban or severely restrict access to and provision of induced abortion, with 13 states already operating under “trigger laws” that were not struck down after Roe v Wade took effect.4 At this time, the full impact of the 2022 SCOTUS decision remains unclear. However, with an ongoing deluge of lawsuits being filed, new state and federal legislation being introduced, and ballot initiatives being brought to voters across the country, abortion policy will continue to play out in the United States for decades to come. This new landscape for abortion law and policy likely means that a significant proportion of the US population will not have access to safe and legal abortion services—a health care procedure chosen in approximately one out of five pregnancies for a wide variety of reasons.5
Read the full article on Wiley Online