Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Fall 2023
ISSN
1073-1105
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Language
en-US
Abstract
Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health continues a trajectory of U.S. Supreme Court jurisprudence that undermines the normative foundation of public health — the idea that the state is obligated to provide a robust set of supports for healthcare services and the underlying social determinants of health. Dobbs furthers a longstanding ideology of individual responsibility in public health, neglecting collective responsibility for better health outcomes. Such an ideology on individual responsibility not only enables a shrinking of public health infrastructure for reproductive health, it facilitates the rise of reproductive coercion and a criminal legal response to pregnancy and abortion. This commentary situates Dobbs in the context of a long historical shift in public health that increasingly places burdens on individuals for their own reproductive health care, moving away from the possibility of a robust state public health infrastructure.
Recommended Citation
Aziza Ahmed, Dabney P. Evans, Jason Jackson, Benjamin Mason Meier & Cecília Tomori,
Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health: Undermining Public Health, Facilitating Reproductive Coercion
,
in
51
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics
485
(2023).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/faculty_scholarship/3728
Included in
Health Law and Policy Commons, Jurisprudence Commons, Law and Society Commons, Medical Jurisprudence Commons
