Dobbs and the Right to Abortion

US Politics Digest – April 2023

In this course, Dr David Andersen (Durham University) explores the latest developments in US politics up to April 2023. In the first lecture, we think about the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organisation, and its impact on the right to abortion in the United States. In the second lecture, we think about the impact of the 2022 midterms, in which the Democrats outperformed expectations, keeping control of the Senate, but (narrowly) losing control of the House of Representatives. In the third lecture, we look at President Joe Biden’s State of the Union Address, before turning in the fourth lecture to the Nashville school shooting and its potential impact (if any) on gun control legislation in the United States. In the fifth lecture, we think about the potential for a stand-off between the White House and the (Republican) House of Representatives over the debt ceiling, before turning in the sixth lecture to look at the first moves in the 2024 presidential election. Finally, in the seventh lecture, we explore the various indictments of former president – and 2024 Republican primary candidate – Donald Trump.

Dobbs and the Right to Abortion

In this lecture we think about Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organisation (2022), a landmark decision of the US Supreme Court, which held that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion. As we move through the lecture, we consider: (i) the two landmark cases that were struck down by Dobbs: Roe v. Wade (1973) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992); (ii) the series of cases in the 1960s and 70s that expanded rights in relation to sex and marriage, e.g. Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), Loving v. Virginia (1967), Eisenstadt v Bard (1972); (iii) the extent to which the Supreme Court has become more politicised since the 1980s, including: the (Democratic) Senate’s rejection of (Republican) President Ronald Reagan’s nomination of Robert Bork in 1987; the (Republican) Senate’s effective blocking of (Democratic) President Barack Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland in 2016; and (Republican) President Donald Trump’s nomination of three Supreme Court justices between 2017-202; (iv) the significance of the Dobbs decision, including: the better-than-expected results for the Democrats in the 2022 midterms, and the increase in federalism (i.e. individual states legislating on matters that were previously reserved for the federal government).