Which case overturned Roe v. Wade, allowing states to regulate abortion?

• A. Roe v. Wade (1973)
• B. Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health (2022)
• C. Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992)
• D. Lawrence v. Texas (2003)

Answer: (B)

Overturning Roe v. Wade means the Court concluded that the U.S. Constitution does not protect a right to abortion, and the authority to regulate abortion returns to the states. In Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health (2022), the justices held that the Fourteenth Amendment does not provide a right to abortion and that Roe and its successor Casey’s framework were wrongly decided. The majority argued that the Constitution’s text and history do not establish abortion as a fundamental right, so states may regulate or restrict abortions as part of their police powers, subject to their own laws and constitutional limits. This decision effectively ended the nationwide constitutional right recognized by Roe and narrowed the federal role, letting states set their own abortion rules.

Roe v. Wade initially recognized a right to abortion based on a broad interpretation of privacy. Planned Parenthood v. Casey kept that right in place but allowed states to impose certain restrictions, using the undue-burden standard. Dobbs rejects that lineage and returns the question to state legislatures. Lawrence v. Texas, by contrast, dealt with consensual intimate conduct and is not about abortion, so it isn’t relevant to the question of abortion rights.