By Rebecca E. Zeitlow

The United States Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health overruled decades of reproduction rights protections, established in Roe v. Wade. Dobbs has resulted in a new legal landscape, where the scope of people’s ability to exercise reproductive autonomy depends on the state in which they live, and their ability to travel across state borders. Without the precedent of Roe to stop them, states have begun enacting severe restrictions on abortion rights. People seeking reproductive rights today will play a leading role in shaping those rights, not by filing lawsuits but through their “ordinary acts,” crossing state borders in search of abortions. This post-Dobbs landscape is reminiscent of the pre-Civil War era, when fugitives from slavery crossed state borders in search of their freedom. Fugitives from slavery could not have succeeded without the help of their allies on the ground, who engaged in civil disobedience and provided clandestine support, aiding fugitives in their travels through the Underground Railroad.  People seeking abortions, like fugitives from slavery before them, are engaged in what I call “transgressive constitutionalism,” making rights claims with their bodies and their actions. Like fugitives from slavery, people seeking abortions are transgressing not only state borders, but also the line between legality and illegality, to enforce a constitution of liberation, bodily autonomy, freedom of movement, and freedom of expression.  

5 N.C. CVL. RTS. L. REV. 105 (2025).