Soohoo, C.. (2022). After Dobbs, Are Rights for Zygotes, Embryos, and Fetuses Next. CUNY L. Rev. Blog. SSRN.
Justice Alito’s overturning of Roe v. Wade marks a watershed shift in the way that the country treats people who are pregnant versus an “unborn life.” By stripping constitutional protection from the abortion decision, Dobbs v. Jackson equates pregnant people’s right to control their bodies and the state’s interest in protecting prenatal life. Dobbs v. Jackson paves the way for states to impose their theory of when a human life begins and push for recognition of personhood for fetuses, embryos, and zygotes. Not only will this result in some states banning abortion from conception and treating abortion as homicide, it also threatens some forms of contraception and in vitro fertilization (IVF)..