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75 Stan. L. Rev. Online 1 (2022-2023)

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ESSAY


         Rethinking Strategy After Dobbs


           David S. Cohen, Greer  Donley &  Rachel Rebouch6


                              Introduction

    Now  that the Supreme  Court  has overturned Roe v. Wade and  Planned
Parenthood v. Casey, the movement for abortion rights and access finds itself in
uncharted territory.1 For almost fifty years, abortion rights supporters have
been largely on the defensive, trying to prevent backsliding and whittling away
of the right to terminate a pre-viable pregnancy. Abortion opponents, on the
other hand, have been on the offensive, using creative strategies in all three
branches of government across federal, state, and local levels to try to achieve
their goal of ending abortion nationwide. It took almost half a century, but with
Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, Roes attackers have taken a decisive
step toward their goal.
    For abortion rights defenders, this new, post-Roe playing field means
adapting their strategy and mindset to confront a new environment without a
tether to federal constitutional protection. The stakes could not be higher. No
one knows the trajectory of this new battle to restore abortion rights, but it will
be longer and harder than it needs to be if abortion rights defenders cannot
rethink basic strategy assumptions. And the longer the battle, the more dire the
effects of forced pregnancy: greater risks to pregnant people's physical and
mental health, deeper economic gender inequity, higher maternal mortality,
and higher child poverty, just to name a few exceedingly likely public health
consequences.2

* Professor of Law, Drexel Kline School of Law; Associate Professor of Law & John E.
  Murray Faculty Scholar, University of Pittsburgh Law School; Dean and James E. Beasley
  Professor of Law, Temple University Beasley School of Law. Many thanks to Maya
  Manian, Yvonne Lindgren, Jill Wieber Lens, Tracy Weitz, and Emily Bazelon for helpful
  feedback and to Isabelle Aubrun for research assistance.
  1. See Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Org., 142 S. Ct. 2228, 2242 (2022) (overruling Roe
    v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), and Planned Parenthood of Se. Pa. v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833
    (1992)).
  2. DIANA GREENE FOSTER, THE TURNAWAY STUDY: TEN YEARS, A THOUSAND WOMEN, AND
    THE CONSEQUENCES OF HAVING-OR BEING DENIED-AN ABORTION 99-129, 141-52,163-86,
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