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24  DOBBS v. JACKSON WOMEN’S HEALTH ORGANIZATION 

Opinion of the Court 

criminalized  abortion  at  all  stages,  all  but  one  did  so  by 
1910.  See ibid. 

The trend in the Territories that would become the last 
13 States was similar: All of them criminalized abortion at 
all stages of pregnancy between 1850 (the Kingdom of Ha-
waii) and 1919 (New Mexico).  See Appendix B, infra; see 
also Casey, 505 U. S., at 952 (Rehnquist, C. J., concurring
in  judgment  in  part  and  dissenting  in  part);  Dellapenna
317–319.  By  the  end  of  the  1950s,  according  to  the  Roe 
Court’s own count, statutes in all but four States and the 
District  of  Columbia  prohibited  abortion  “however  and
whenever  performed,  unless  done  to  save  or  preserve  the
life of the mother.”  410 U. S., at 139.35 

This overwhelming consensus endured until the day Roe 
was  decided.  At  that  time,  also  by  the  Roe  Court’s  own 
count,  a  substantial  majority—30  States—still  prohibited 
abortion at all stages except to save the life of the mother. 
See id., at 118, and n. 2 (listing States).  And though Roe 
discerned  a  “trend  toward  liberalization”  in  about  “one-
third  of  the  States,”  those  States  still  criminalized  some 
abortions  and  regulated  them  more  stringently  than  Roe 
would allow.  Id., at 140, and n. 37; Tribe 2.  In short, the 

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35 The statutes of three States (Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Penn-
sylvania) prohibited abortions performed “unlawfully” or “without lawful 
justification.”  Roe, 410 U. S., at 139 (internal quotation marks omitted).
In Massachusetts, case law held that abortion was allowed when, accord-
ing to the judgment of physicians in the relevant community, the proce-
dure was necessary to preserve the woman’s life or her physical or emo-
tional health.  Commonwealth v. Wheeler, 315 Mass. 394, 395, 53 N. E. 
2d 4, 5 (1944).  In the other two States, however, there is no clear support
in  case  law  for  the  proposition  that  abortion  was  lawful  where  the 
mother’s life was not at risk.  See State v. Brandenberg, 137 N. J. L. 124, 
58 A. 2d 709 (1948); Commonwealth v. Trombetta, 131 Pa. Super. 487, 
200 A. 107 (1938). 

Statutes in the two remaining jurisdictions (the District of Columbia 
and Alabama) permitted “abortion to preserve the mother’s health.”  Roe, 
410  U. S.,  at  139.    Case  law  in  those  jurisdictions  does  not  clarify  the 
breadth of these exceptions.