Here is a link to a good essay in Public Discourse by Justin Dyer. Pro-lifers know that Justice Blackmun’s opinion in Roe v. Wade relied upon a terribly mistaken history of abortion. Blackmun’s historical account has been refuted so many times that it is somewhat surprising that the same arguments are being made on the abortion rights side in briefs presented to the Supreme Court in Dobbs.
In his essay, Dyer explores this issue in detail. He concludes his treatment with this paragraph:
“The law office history that buttressed Justice Blackmun’s opinion in Roe v. Wade was wrong at the time and it is wrong today. That remains true, even if the two leading organizations of professional historians have shamelessly signed on, yet again, to the project of constructing a fictional abortion history that will advance what elite academic opinion deemed long ago to be the proper ideological goals.”