What Roe’s Anniversary Means Today

January 22, 2026, marks 53 years since the U.S. Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade, recognizing the constitutional right to privacy and guaranteeing access to abortion across the United States.

But that right was stripped away in 2022, when the votes of three Trump-appointed justices overturned Roe. Since then, 23 states have implemented full or partial abortion bans, including 13 states with total abortion bans.

For decades, NOW members observed "Roe Day" as a celebration of reproductive freedom. In 2026, we mark the day as a call to action and rededicate ourselves to fighting for one of NOW's core issues: Reproductive Rights and Justice.

Donald Trump bragged in a 2023 Truth Social post, "I was able to kill Roe v. Wade." Now, after one year in office, his administration has made good on that boast - putting safe, reliable reproductive health care on the chopping block and enacting the most extreme provisions of the Project 2025 far-right blueprint.

According to The Guttmacher Institute, these policies are:

• Rolling back Biden-era protections for abortion access post-Dobbs
• Drastically undermining access to contraception, gender-affirming care, and other reproductive health services
• Dismantling evidence-based resources for sexual and reproductive health
• Spreading misinformation and inflammatory rhetoric that fuel stigma, confusion, and fear around critical healthcare services

Part of Project 2025's agenda was to block states from using Medicaid waivers to support patients traveling out of state for reproductive health care. This is now part of the current fight in Washington over extending Affordable Care Act subsidies, with Senate Republicans spreading false claims about the Hyde Amendment in order to justify their anti-healthcare agenda.

These lawmakers are inventing lies about the ACA to justify inserting a back-door national abortion ban into legislation meant to keep millions from losing their health insurance - and millions more from seeing their payments skyrocket by thousands of dollars a month.

NOW members are observing today's anniversary of Roe v. Wade in support of the women who have bled to death, become infertile or septic, or been forced to carry dangerous or unwanted pregnancies to term because abortion bans denied them essential care.

Women have paid the price with their health, their futures, and their lives. NOW pledges today to continue the fight to restore reproductive rights and to protect patients and health care providers from extreme attacks and criminal prosecutions.

We cannot remain silent as lawmakers play politics with women's lives.

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