Abortion, Choice, and the Supreme Court: History Behind the Headlines

Abortion, Choice, and the Supreme Court: History Behind the Headlines,” brings together four leading scholars to place Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in historical context. How did we get here from Roe v. Wade (1973)? Why is history central to this jurisprudence and its implications?
This event featured moderator Leslie J. Reagan (Univ. of Illinois Urbana-Champaign) and panelists Nancy F. Cott (Harvard Univ.), Melissa Murray (New York Univ.) and Aaron Tang (Univ. of California, Davis).
This event is part of the AHA's "History Behind the Headlines" series, which is generously sponsored by AHA member Jared Brubaker. Events in this series demonstrate the value and necessity of thinking historically if we are to understand the world around us.
The AHA was a signatory to an amicus curiae brief in the Supreme Court case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. This brief, based on decades of study and research by professional historians, aimed to provide an accurate historical perspective as the Court considered the state of Mississippi’s challenge to a woman’s right to abortion, a right that was affirmed by the Court in Roe v. Wade. Visit our website for the full brief. www.historians...
The AHA and the Organization of American Historians have jointly issued a statement expressing dismay that the US Supreme Court “declined to take seriously the historical claims of our [amicus curiae] brief” in its Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision. “Instead, the court adopted a flawed interpretation of abortion criminalization that has been pressed by anti-abortion advocates for more than thirty years. … These misrepresentations are now enshrined in a text that becomes authoritative for legal reference and citation in the future. The court’s decision erodes fundamental rights and has the potential to exacerbate historic injustices and deepen inequalities in our country." www.historians...)