Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/19-1392_6j37.pdf/19-1392_6j37.pdf
Page Number: 41.0

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

33 

Opinion of the Court 

specific practices of States at the time of the adoption of the
Fourteenth Amendment” do not “mar[k] the outer limits of 
the  substantive  sphere  of  liberty  which  the  Fourteenth 
Amendment protects.”  505 U. S., at 848.  Abortion is noth-
ing new.  It has been addressed by lawmakers for centuries, 
and  the  fundamental  moral  question  that  it  poses  is  age-
less.
  Defenders  of  Roe  and  Casey  do  not  claim  that  any  new 
scientific learning calls for a different answer to the under-
lying moral question, but they do contend that changes in
society  require  the  recognition  of  a  constitutional  right  to
obtain  an  abortion.    Without  the  availability  of  abortion, 
they  maintain,  people  will  be  inhibited  from  exercising
their freedom to choose the types of relationships they de-
sire, and women will be unable to compete with men in the 
workplace and in other endeavors.

Americans who believe that abortion should be restricted 
press  countervailing  arguments  about  modern  develop-
ments.  They note that attitudes about the pregnancy of un-
married women have changed drastically; that federal and 
state laws ban discrimination on the basis of pregnancy;42 
that leave for pregnancy and childbirth are now guaranteed 
by law in many cases;43 that the costs of medical care asso-

—————— 

42 See,  e.g.,  Pregnancy  Discrimination  Act,  92  Stat.  2076,  42  U. S. C. 
§2000e(k) (federal law prohibiting pregnancy discrimination in employ-
ment);  Dept.  of  Labor,  Women’s  Bureau,  Employment  Protections  for 
Workers  Who  Are  Pregnant  or  Nursing,  https://www.dol.gov/agencies/
wb/pregnant-nursing-employment-protections  (showing  that  46  States 
and the District of Columbia have employment protections against preg-
nancy discrimination). 

43 See,  e.g.,  Family  and  Medical  Leave  Act  of  1993,  107  Stat.  9,  29 
U. S. C.  §2612  (federal  law  guaranteeing  employment  leave  for  preg-
nancy and birth); Bureau of Labor Statistics, Access to Paid and Unpaid
Family Leave in 2018, https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2019/access-to-paid-