Reproductive Freedom
Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization
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Learn about Reproductive Freedom
Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization
Reproductive Freedom
Status: Decided
The case concerns the constitutionality of a Mississippi law prohibiting abortions after the fifteenth week of pregnancy. The state used the case as a vehicle to ask the Supreme Court to take away the federal constitutional right to abortion it first recognized 50 years before in Roe v. Wade. On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court of the United States accepted the state’s invitation and overturned Roe eliminating the federal constitutional right to abortion.
What's at stake
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Featured
Reproductive Freedom
Cameron v. EMW Women’s Surgical Center
Status: Decided
In 2018, the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Kentucky filed a suit on behalf of Kentucky abortion providers and their patients challenging a state law banning physicians from providing a safe and medically proven abortion method called dilation and evacuation, or “D&E.” If it were to take effect, this law would prevent many patients from being able to obtain an abortion altogether. After two courts held that the law is unconstitutional, the Supreme Court ruled in March 2022 that Kentucky Attorney General Cameron can continue his pursuit to push abortion out of reach by intervening in the underlying challenge to an abortion ban, which is proceeding in a lower court.
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Reproductive Freedom
Whole Woman's Health v. Jackson
Status: Decided
The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Texas, and coalition partners filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of abortion providers and funds on July 13, 2021, challenging S.B. 8, a Texas law allowing private citizens to enforce a ban on abortion as early as six weeks in pregnancy—before many know they are pregnant. The ACLU’s challenge made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court three times in as many months. After hearing oral arguments in the case, the Court issued a decision on December 10, 2021, that ended the most promising pathways to blocking the ban. The Supreme Court’s decision makes it more difficult to obtain adequate relief from the courts and gives states the green light to ban abortion using bounty-hunting schemes. Texas’ abortion ban will remain in effect until relief can be secured from a court.
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All Cases
Nov 02, 2022
Nov 02, 2022
Preterm-Cleveland v. David Yost
Reproductive Freedom
Status: Filed
On September 2, 2022, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Ohio, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and the law firm WilmerHale filed a lawsuit in the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas bringing a state constitutional challenge against SB 23, a law banning abortion starting at approximately six weeks of pregnancy. The reproductive rights organizations asked the court to immediately restore Ohioans’ reproductive rights secured by the Ohio Constitution. This lawsuit came more than two months after the draconian bill took effect on June 24, 2022 for the first time since it was passed in 2019, causing an immediate, devastating crisis across the state. Due to the ongoing irreparable harm to Ohioans, the reproductive rights organizations withdrew the lawsuit they initially filed in the state Supreme Court in late June and asked the lower court to grant immediate relief blocking the ban.
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Oct 25, 2022
Oct 25, 2022
EMW Women's Surgical Center, P.S.C., et al. v. Daniel Cameron, et. al.
Reproductive Freedom
On June 24, 2022, abortion provision in Kentucky effectively stopped after the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, ending the federal constitutional right to abortion and 50 years of precedent.
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Sep 27, 2022
Sep 27, 2022
Whole Woman's Health v. Paxton
Reproductive Freedom
On June 24, 2022, abortion provision in Texas entirely stopped due to confusion over whether the state’s century-old criminal abortion ban could be enforced after the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, ending the federal constitutional right to abortion and 50 years of precedent. On June 27, 2022, abortion providers in Texas filed a lawsuit in state court seeking to block officials from enforcing the state’s antiquated pre-Roe abortion ban. If successful, the lawsuit would restore early abortion access in Texas for two months or longer.
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Sep 14, 2022
Sep 14, 2022
Franciscan Alliance v. Burwell
LGBTQ Rights
Status: Filed
The ACLU intervened in a case challenging a section of the Affordable Care Act that prohibits health care entities from discriminating based on race, national origin, sex, age or disability.
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Sep 14, 2022
Sep 14, 2022
Hopkins v. Jegley – Challenge to Arkansas Law Restricting Abortion Rights
Reproductive Freedom
Status: Filed
On July 28, 2017, the U.S. District Court granted plaintiff’s motion for preliminary injunction, thereby blocking enforcement of four challenged Arkansas laws restricting abortion care in the state until the litigation is resolved.
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