Roe v. Wade was only half the story. A new short documentary spotlights the case that made abortion rights real in practice.
4/15/2026
by Ava Slocum
On June 24, 2026, we’ll reach the fourth anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. This year, which would have been Roe’s 53rd anniversary, also coincides with the United States’ 250th, reminding us that while the U.S. has been independent since 1776, American women are still far from having full rights and power over our own bodies.
Roe v. Wade, which passed in 1973 and stood for 49 years, gets most of the credit for establishing the national right to abortion. Many people think of Roe as the first big bookend ushering in the right to abortion in the U.S., with Dobbs as the other bookend taking that right away again.
However, Roe wasn’t the only groundbreaking case that paved the way for abortion rights in the U.S.