Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan, JJ., dissenting
example, if they were raped. They may count on abortion for when something changes in the midst of a pregnancy, whether it involves family or financial circumstances, unanticipated medical complications, or heartbreaking fetal diagnoses. Taking away the right to abortion, as the majority does today, destroys all those individual plans and expectations. In so doing, it diminishes women's opportunities to participate fully and equally in the Nation's political, social, and economic life. See Brief for Economists as Amici Curiae 13 (showing that abortion availability has "large effects on women's education, labor force participation, occupations, and earnings" (footnotes omitted)).
The majority's response to these obvious points exists far from the reality American women actually live. The majority proclaims that "'reproductive planning could take virtually immediate account of any sudden restoration of state authority to ban abortions.'" Ante, at 64 (quoting Casey, 505 U. S., at 856).[1] The facts are: 45 percent of pregnancies in the United States are unplanned. See Brief for 547 Deans 5. Even the most effective contraceptives fail, and effective contraceptives are not universally accessible.[2] Not all sexual activity consensual and not all contraceptive choices are made by the party who risks pregnancy. See Brief for Legal Voice et al. as Amici Curiae 18-19. The Mississippi law at issue here, for example, has no exception for rape or incest, even for underage women. Finally, the
- ↑ Astoundingly, the majority casts this statement as a "conce[ssion]" from Casey with which it "agree[s]." Ante, at 64. In fact, Casey used this language as part of describing an argument that it rejected. See 505 U. S., at 856. It is only today's Court that endorses this profoundly mistaken view.
- ↑ See Brief for 547 Deans 6-7 (noting that 51 percent of women who terminated their pregnancies reported using contraceptives during the month in which they conceived); Brief for Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law et al. as Amici Curiae 12-14 (explaining financial and geographic barriers to access to effective contraceptives).
