Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/19-1392_6j37.pdf/19-1392_6j37.pdf
Page Number: 196

Cite as:  597 U. S. ____ (2022) 

49 

BREYER, SOTOMAYOR, and KAGAN, JJ., dissenting 

example, if they were raped.  They may count on abortion
for when something changes in the midst of a pregnancy,
whether it involves family or financial circumstances, un-
anticipated  medical  complications,  or  heartbreaking  fetal 
diagnoses.  Taking away the right to abortion, as the ma-
jority does today, destroys all those individual plans and ex-
pectations.  In so doing, it diminishes women’s opportuni-
ties to participate fully and equally in the Nation’s political, 
social, and economic life.  See Brief for Economists as Amici 
Curiae 13 (showing that abortion availability has “large ef-
fects on women’s education, labor force participation, occu-
pations, and earnings” (footnotes omitted)).

The majority’s response to these obvious points exists far
from the reality American women actually live.  The major-
ity proclaims that “ ‘reproductive planning could take virtu-
ally immediate account of any sudden restoration of state
authority  to  ban  abortions.’ ”    Ante,  at  64  (quoting  Casey, 
505 U. S., at 856).23  The facts are: 45 percent of pregnancies
in  the  United  States  are  unplanned.    See  Brief  for  547 
Deans 5.  Even the most effective contraceptives fail, and
effective  contraceptives  are  not  universally  accessible.24 
Not all sexual activity is consensual and not all contracep-
tive  choices  are  made  by  the  party  who  risks  pregnancy.
See Brief for Legal Voice et al. as Amici Curiae 18–19.  The 
Mississippi law at issue here, for example, has no exception 
for rape or incest, even for underage women.  Finally, the 

—————— 

23 Astoundingly, the majority casts this statement as a “conce[ssion]” 
from Casey with which it “agree[s].”  Ante, at 64.  In fact, Casey used this 
language  as  part  of  describing  an  argument  that  it  rejected.  See  505 
U. S., at 856.  It is only today’s Court that endorses this profoundly mis-
taken view. 

24 See Brief for 547 Deans 6–7 (noting that 51 percent of women who 
terminated their pregnancies reported using contraceptives during the 
month in which they conceived); Brief for Lawyers’ Committee for Civil
Rights Under Law et al. as Amici Curiae 12–14 (explaining financial and 
geographic barriers to access to effective contraceptives).