“Religion” at the End of <i>Roe v. Wade</i>

Abstract This article highlights the role that a particular formulation of religion played in the US Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade. The court’s approach to religion in this case helped to pull abortion rights out of the matrix of constitutional protections in which they had been enshrined for nearly fifty years, creating a volatile new legal landscape that implicates church-state principles as well as reproductive justice goals. As abortion rights advocates endeavor to push back against the cascade of restrictions that have ensued in the wake of Dobbs, many have worked to harness the Dobbs court’s formulation of religion to secure abortion rights on the terrain of religious freedom. This endeavor raises complex questions about how religion is defined and deployed within US law.