Following the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, states have emerged as laboratories of democracy in the field of reproductive healthcare. Currently, state Attorneys General are siding with the FDA in one lawsuit to remove mifepristone from the market and concurrently suing the FDA to remove restrictions on the same medication. To date, twelve states have banned abortion. Three states have specifically enshrined the right to abortion in their constitution, with the high court in eight states recognizing the state constitution protects abortion. Twenty-five states have pending legislation to ban all or most abortions. Eighteen states have pending legislation to protect access to legal abortions. Abortion in post-Roe America is no longer a federal, or even a national, issue.

The presenter is interviewing local health departments to discuss their reproductive health work in the wake of the Dobbs decision. Interviews are being conducted with geographically diverse health departments of all sizes across the country. This presentation will focus on what local health departments are seeing, experiencing, and doing in post-Roe America. The presenter will also discuss the legal hurdles local health agencies experience working in the reproductive health care space and identify potential avenues to work around those hurdles.

As part of a panel focusing on the implications of the Dobbs decision, this presentation will focus on the practical implications of Dobbs in public health, and how local health departments are operationalizing the frequent changes to state and federal law and policy on reproductive healthcare.