Harry A. Blackmun

Justice Blackmun's official photo.

Harry A. Blackmun (1908 - 1999) was an American attorney who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1970 to 1994. From the Eighth Circuit court, Blackmun was nominated for the Supreme Court by President Richard Nixon, a conservative, but Blackmun ultimately became one of the most liberal justices on the Court.

Blackmun is best known as the author of the Court's opinion in Roe v. Wade (1973), which guaranteed a constitutional right to abortion in the U.S. This case legalized abortion across the U.S. for forty-nine years, until the 2022 Supreme Court overturned it in Dobbs V. Jackson Women's Health Organization. This effectively gave each individual U.S. state the right to determine the legality of abortion within its borders.