In "After Dobbs: Towards a Federal Ban on Abortion," JWI Affiliated Scholar Josh Craddock shares his reaction to the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization opinion on The Postliberal Order. After rejoicing at the overturn of Roe v. Wade, he urges the pro-life movement to realize that the Dobbs opinion is a turning point and not an end goal. He supports his claim by stating that the Dobbs opinion has not expressly declared the unborn as persons. Lastly, Craddock suggests possible modes of action for each branch of the federal government that could help recognize children in the womb as humans deserving of protection. We have included the first four paragraphs below for your perusal.

At long last, Roe v. Wade’s fifty-year reign of terror has ended.  

Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization is the most important Supreme Court decision of our lifetimes—for its correction of an egregious constitutional error, yes, but much more importantly, for the countless human lives that may now be rescued from the butcher’s knife.

But Dobbs does not end the struggle toward securing legal protection for unborn children.  That is because it corrects only one of Roe’s erroneous holdings.  

To reach its well-known conclusion that the Constitution guarantees a right to abortion, the Roe Court first determined that unborn children are not “persons” entitled to equal protection.  If unborn children were persons, Roe acknowledged, the case for abortion “collapses, for the fetus’s right to life would then be guaranteed specifically by the [Fourteenth] Amendment.”

To read the full piece on The Postliberal Order, please click here.