In a video statement outlining his position on abortion, former President Donald Trump falsely claimed that “all legal scholars, both sides, wanted and in fact demanded” that Roe v. Wade “be ended.” Legal scholars told us that was “utter nonsense” and “patently absurd.”

Roe, the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that established a constitutional right to abortion, was overturned by the Supreme Court on June 24, 2022, by a 5-4 ruling in the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which concerned a Mississippi law. Legal scholars wrote many amicus briefs in that case supporting Roe and opposing the state law.

For instance, 12 scholars in reproductive rights wrote: “Overturning decades of precedent—precedent on which women have relied and around which women have planned their lives—would have catastrophic effects on all women, but most acutely on women of color.” The American Bar Association, whose members include lawyers and law professors, wrote in its brief that “the ABA has consistently opposed overturning Roe v. Wade,” as well as a subsequent Supreme Court ruling that reaffirmed Roe and “laws that seek to bar abortion before viability.”