University Honors

Abortion access has long been a contentious issue in the United States, subject to changing social values, new scientific findings, and public policies. This project examines how historical, political, and cultural forces have shaped abortion law and abortion access in the United States through an analysis of the Supreme Court decisions in Roe v. Wade (1973) through Dobbs v. Jackson Womenís Health Organization (2022). Using a multidisciplinary literature review, I analyze abortion policy through legal, public health, and sociological scholarship to examine the dynamics of abortion policy development and dispute resolution. The research pinpoints legal and policy solutions that enable better access to reproductive healthcare under existing system constraints. The paper uses a comparative case study ñ with California as an abortion-access state and Texas as an abortion-restricted state ñto show how various legal and political systems control post-Dobbs abortion access. My findings suggest that funding restrictions like the Hyde Amendment (1976) and state-level abortion regulations permitted under the ìundue burdenî standard established in Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992) have restricted access to abortion for disadvantaged groups. These policies show that legal systems control both access to abortion services and the overall results of reproductive health services. The study demonstrates how legal access mechanisms, ideological barriers, and institutional frameworks create health disparities, which, in turn, affect healthcare access and the practice of reproductive justice