On June 24, 2022, the United States Supreme Court issued its long-awaited decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization and ruled in a 6-3 decision that an abortion is not a constitutional right. The ruling overturns a fifty-year-old legal precedent that barred states from banning the procedure prior to viability, a standard established by the Court in its 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade.
In reversing Roe, the Court transferred the power to regulate abortion back to the individual states, of which at least nineteen already have enacted abortion restrictions or outright prohibitions that are now in effect, or will become effective in the coming weeks, with others likely to follow suit.
This state-based approach raises questions regarding coverage of the procedure and ancillary benefits, such as travel, for beneficiaries who reside in states where abortion is now banned.