United States abortion-rights movement

The United States abortion-rights movement (also known as the pro-choice movement) is a sociopolitical movement in the United States supporting the view that a woman should have the legal right to an elective abortion, meaning the right to terminate her pregnancy, and is part of a broader global abortion-rights movement. The movement consists of a variety of organizations, with no single centralized decision-making body.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

A key point in abortion rights in the United States was the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade, which struck down most state laws restricting abortion,^[6][7] thereby decriminalizing and legalizing elective abortion in a number of states. On June 24, 2022, Roe v. Wade was overruled in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization.

On the other side of the abortion debate in the United States is the anti-abortion movement (self-described as a “pro-life” movement), which holds the belief that human embryos and fetuses have a right to life, and abortion violates this right and should be outlawed or otherwise restricted. Within this group, many argue that human personhood begins at conception, a position rejected by many abortion rights groups.