Judicial Storytelling and the Political Construction of Abortion in State Courts

In the wake of the United States Supreme Court decision, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022), state courts have emerged as central sites for contesting and redefining abortion. Existing scholarship on abortion storytelling has focused largely on individuals, advocates, and legislators, emphasizing how personal narratives shape public opinion and policymaking. This essay shifts analytic attention to a less visible but highly consequential set of narrators: courts. It argues that judicial opinions do more than resolve legal disputes; they are institutional stories that construct abortion’s meaning.