What I got wrong about the end of Roe

Four years ago this week – June 24, in fact – the Supreme Court did something I did not think would happen in my lifetime: It overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that legalized abortion nationwide.

When the news broke, I was on a once-in-a-lifetime trip traversing the UK. Tucked away on a street corner in Notting Hill, I sat on the ground reading furiously through the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision. It vindicated years of pro-life efforts around the nation and returned the question of abortion to where it belongs: the states. The ruling is an example of how decades of grassroots work and lobbying on behalf of the unborn can influence legal change.

However, the results of Dobbs since then have been as surprising as the decision itself – and far more disappointing. I thought for sure that if the Supreme Court overturned Roe, the nation would see its blind spot on abortion, and men and women would begin to treat babies in utero like actual human beings with rights. I know other conservatives hoped for this too.

But in the years since Dobbs, data show that abortions have slightly increased overall, though they've declined in states where abortions have been banned. "From January to June 2025, there have been more than 590,000 abortions compared to 1.14 million abortions in all of 2024 and 1.06 million abortions in 2023. For most of the decade prior to the Dobbs ruling, there was a steady decline in abortion rates nationally, with a slight uptick in the years just before the ruling," a KFF paper on abortion trends before and after Dobbs reads.

KFF suggests abortions likely increased largely because of more telehealth access and abortion pills mailed to patients.

In states like Texas, where abortion is banned with a few exceptions, horror stories about pregnant women receiving delayed care during medical emergencies began to surface. No doubt these are few and far between, but the safety of mothers should remain a primary concern when drafting abortion-related legislation. However, the number of abortions reported within the state did decline dramatically. By 2024, abortions officially reported in Texas numbered about five per month, down from roughly 4,400 per month before Roe was overturned – though that figure doesn't include the thousands of Texans who now get abortion pills through telehealth or travel out of state each month.

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So, does this mean the Supreme Court made a mistake in overturning Roe? No, I don't think so. Abortion is not a constitutional right, and it should always have been a state-by-state decision.

But I do think the increase in abortions since shows that valuing the personhood of even the tiniest human beings is not merely a legal or legislative issue, although law and legislation certainly play a significant role. It shows something far more important: Laws and policies alone do not always change culture. And it's clear we are not yet a culture that values life in all its stages, though I hope we still can be.

Pro-life conservatives should not give up, but we must be realistic about what this means for society, and about how we can continue to help men and women handle unexpected pregnancies, so that all human beings have a chance at life.

What did you think when the Supreme Court overturned Roe? How has this affected your state? Reach out at [email protected].

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