Demystifying Dobbs *CANCELLED*

Dr. Anne Coughlin (University of Virginia School of Law) will be giving a lecture on the recent Supreme Court case which overturned Roe v. Wade.

Abstract: In Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022), the United States Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade (1973) and held that the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution does not protect the right to an abortion. The Dobbs Court concluded its analysis by announcing that it was time to return the contentious issue of abortion to state legislatures. Since Dobbs dropped, legislatures in many states have enacted (or revived) bans on abortion care, while lawmakers in other states have moved to codify Roe or even to enshrine it in state constitutional provisions. To put these and related developments in perspective, it is essential to understand the legal questions that were presented in Dobbs and to evaluate the legal methodology that the Court used to resolve those questions. The aim of this lecture is to make the Dobbs judgment accessible to non-lawyers and lawyers alike, so that the “people” whom the Constitution is designed to protect are in a position to evaluate this landmark decision for themselves.

This event is co-sponsored with the Menard Center, the Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program, and Honors College.

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