EPIC Statement on Dobbs v. Jackson

Today the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, undoing 50 years of precedent protecting reproductive rights and the constitutional right to privacy. The Court’s ruling is an affront to human rights and a clear signal that constitutional protections for privacy and autonomy are at risk of further erosion. Privacy is a fundamental right that the Court has long recognized as “implicit in the concept of ordered liberty.” Now, for the first time, the Court has stripped away part of that right to personal autonomy and self-determination. This decision will have far-reaching negative consequences for public health, personal safety, and social welfare, especially in marginalized communities. And the proliferation of commercial and state surveillance online deepens the danger the individuals will face for trying to exercise the rights subverted by the Court’s ruling.

Privacy is not only at the root of liberty, it is a central thread of many protections enumerated in the Bill of Rights. But the majority and concurring opinions in Dobbs take direct aim at that right and threaten to further undermine substantive due process protections. Members of the Court have made clear that they do not intend to stop with Dobbs. EPIC stands in solidarity with the advocates and individuals working to defend reproductive rights and opposing the erosion of these critical constitutional protections. We will support efforts to strengthen reproductive and privacy rights and to push back against the Court’s efforts to weaken them further.

Read EPIC’s prior statement on Dobbs.