Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/19-1392_6j37.pdf/19-1392_6j37.pdf
Page Number: 73

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

65 

Opinion of the Court 

intangible form of reliance endorsed by the Casey plurality
is another matter.  That form of reliance depends on an em-
pirical question that is hard for anyone—and in particular, 
for  a  court—to  assess,  namely,  the  effect  of  the  abortion 
right  on  society  and  in  particular  on  the  lives  of  women.
The  contending  sides  in  this  case  make  impassioned  and 
conflicting arguments about the effects of the abortion right
on the lives of women.  Compare Brief for Petitioners 34–
36; Brief for Women Scholars et al. as Amici Curiae 13–20, 
29–41, with Brief for Respondents 36–41; Brief for National
Women’s  Law  Center  et  al.  as  Amici  Curiae  15–32.  The 
contending sides also make conflicting arguments about the
status  of  the  fetus.    This  Court  has  neither  the  authority
nor the expertise to adjudicate those disputes, and the Ca-
sey plurality’s speculations and weighing of the relative im-
portance  of  the  fetus  and  mother  represent  a  departure
from  the  “original  constitutional  proposition”  that  “courts
do  not  substitute  their  social  and economic  beliefs  for  the 
judgment  of  legislative  bodies.”    Ferguson  v.  Skrupa,  372 
U. S. 726, 729–730 (1963).

Our decision returns the issue of abortion to those legis-
lative bodies, and it allows women on both sides of the abor-
tion issue to seek to affect the legislative process by influ-
encing  public  opinion,  lobbying  legislators,  voting,  and
running for office.  Women are not without electoral or po-
litical  power. 
It  is  noteworthy  that  the  percentage  of 
women who register to vote and cast ballots is consistently 
higher than the percentage of men who do so.66  In the last 
election in November 2020, women, who make up around
51.5 percent of the population of Mississippi,67 constituted 

—————— 

66 See Dept. of Commerce, U. S. Census Bureau (Census Bureau), An
Analysis of the 2018 Congressional Election 6 (Dec. 2021) (Fig. 5) (show-
ing that women made up over 50 percent of the voting population in every
congressional election between 1978 and 2018). 

67 Census Bureau, QuickFacts, Mississippi (July 1, 2021), https://www.