Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/19-1392_6j37.pdf/19-1392_6j37.pdf
Page Number: 144.0

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

9 

ROBERTS, C. J., concurring in judgment 

rule—from our jurisprudence. 

The majority lists a number of cases that have stressed 
the importance of the viability rule to our abortion prece-
dents.  See  ante,  at  73–74.  I  agree  that—whether  it  was 
originally  holding  or  dictum—the  viability  line  is  clearly 
part of our “past precedent,” and the Court has applied it as 
such in several cases since Roe.  Ante, at 73.  My point is 
that  Roe  adopted  two  distinct  rules  of  constitutional  law:
one, that a woman has the right to choose to terminate a 
pregnancy; two, that such right may be overridden by the 
State’s legitimate interests when the fetus is viable outside
the womb.  The latter is obviously distinct from the former. 
I would abandon that timing rule, but see no need in this
case to consider the basic right.

The Court contends that it is impossible to address Roe’s 
conclusion that the Constitution protects the woman’s right
to  abortion,  without  also  addressing  Roe’s  rule  that  the 
State’s interests are not constitutionally adequate to justify 
a  ban  on  abortion  until  viability.  See  ibid.  But  we  have 
partially  overruled  precedents  before,  see,  e.g.,  United 
States v. Miller, 471 U. S. 130, 142–144 (1985); Daniels v. 
Williams,  474  U. S.  327,  328–331  (1986);  Batson  v.  Ken-
tucky, 476 U. S. 79, 90–93 (1986), and certainly have never 
held that a distinct holding defining the contours of a con-
stitutional right must be treated as part and parcel of the 
right itself.

Overruling the subsidiary rule is sufficient to resolve this 
case in Mississippi’s favor.  The law at issue allows abor-
tions up through fifteen weeks, providing an adequate op-
portunity to exercise the right Roe protects.  By the time a
pregnant woman has reached that point, her pregnancy is
well into the second trimester.  Pregnancy tests are now in-
expensive and accurate, and a woman ordinarily discovers 
she is pregnant by six weeks of gestation.  See A. Branum 
&  K.  Ahrens,  Trends  in  Timing  of  Pregnancy  Awareness 
Among US Women, 21 Maternal & Child Health J. 715, 722