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Page Number: 42.0

34  DOBBS v. JACKSON WOMEN’S HEALTH ORGANIZATION 

Opinion of the Court 

ciated with pregnancy are covered by insurance or govern-
ment  assistance;44  that  States  have  increasingly  adopted
“safe haven” laws, which generally allow women to drop off 
babies anonymously;45 and that a woman who puts her new-
born up for adoption today has little reason to fear that the 
baby will not find a suitable home.46  They also claim that
many people now have a new appreciation of fetal life and 
that  when  prospective  parents  who  want  to  have  a  child 
view  a  sonogram,  they  typically  have  no  doubt  that  what 
they see is their daughter or son. 

—————— 
and-unpaid-family-leave-in-2018.htm (showing that 89 percent of civil-
ian workers had access to unpaid family leave in 2018). 

44 The  Affordable  Care  Act  (ACA)  requires  non-grandfathered  health 
plans in the individual and small group markets to cover certain essen-
tial health benefits, which include maternity and newborn care.  See 124 
Stat.  163,  42  U. S. C.  §18022(b)(1)(D).    The  ACA  also  prohibits  annual
limits, see §300gg–11, and limits annual cost-sharing obligations on such 
benefits,  §18022(c).    State  Medicaid  plans  must  provide  coverage  for 
pregnancy-related services—including, but not limited to, prenatal care, 
delivery, and postpartum care—as well as services for other conditions 
that  might  complicate  the  pregnancy.   42  CFR  §§440.210(a)(2)(i)–(ii) 
(2020).  State Medicaid plans are also prohibited from imposing deduc-
tions, cost-sharing, or similar charges for pregnancy-related services for 
pregnant women.  42 U. S. C. §§1396o(a)(2)(B), (b)(2)(B). 

45 Since Casey, all 50 States and the District of Columbia have enacted 
such laws.  Dept. of Health and Human Servs., Children’s Bureau, Infant 
Safe  Haven  Laws  1–2  (2016),  https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubPDFs/
safehaven.pdf (noting that safe haven laws began in Texas in 1999). 

46 See,  e.g.,  CDC,  Adoption  Experiences  of  Women  and  Men  and  De-
mand for Children To Adopt by Women 18–44 Years of Age in the United
States 16 (Aug. 2008) (“[N]early 1 million women were seeking to adopt
children in 2002 (i.e., they were in demand for a child), whereas the do-
mestic supply of infants relinquished at birth or within the first month 
of  life  and  available  to  be  adopted  had  become  virtually  nonexistent”);
CDC, National Center for Health Statistics, Adoption and Nonbiological
Parenting,  https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nsfg/key_statistics/a-keystat.htm# 
adoption  (showing  that  approximately  3.1  million  women  between  the 
ages  of  18–49  had  ever  “[t]aken  steps  to  adopt  a  child”  based  on  data
collected from 2015–2019).