Elections have consequences, as they say, and the majority of Americans who support abortion rights may soon get a startling demonstration of that principle in action. In dozens of Republican-led states, including Missouri, lawmakers are filing bills to restrict abortion rights in anticipation of a likely weakening of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court.
In essence, the GOP’s aggressive campaign of the past few years to stack the court with right-wing ideologues — a campaign driven overwhelmingly by their zeal to roll back abortion rights — is on the cusp of paying off. If and when the court acts and these state laws take effect, impoverished women in particular will again be denied control over their bodies, and dangerous back-alley abortions will again be the only choice for some.
Today’s conservative court majority wasn’t created because that’s what most Americans wanted, nor was it happenstance. It was primarily the result of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s calculated cynicism when he was majority leader. By holding one court vacancy open for almost a year, then rushing to fill another one in mere weeks, he has taken what would have been a relatively centrist court and turned it into a bench far more conservative than America.
The result of that scheme was on display during the court’s initial ruling on Texas’ draconian new anti-abortion rights law. That law ditches the standard of Roe v. Wade, which allows abortion up until fetal viability, and replaces it with a medically irrelevant heartbeat standard. That means abortions could be effectively outlawed as early as six weeks, before some women even know they’re pregnant. The enforcement mechanism is akin to bounty hunting, dangling financial reward for anyone who sues abortion providers, even if they have no legal standing.
This is so outside the realm of normal legal precedent that even conservative Chief Justice John Roberts balked and joined the minority in opposing the law.
With the court’s willingness to sacrifice sober legal judgment for conservative dogma now firmly established, other cases coming down the pike could provide the vehicle for rolling back or overturning Roe. That would leave it to each state to decide how restrictive lawmakers want to be regarding abortion rights — and at least 29 states have already moved to pass new restrictions that would go into effect immediately upon Roe’s reversal. Missouri Republican state Rep. Mary Elizabeth Coleman told The Washington Post that the court’s critique of the Texas law constituted “lightning-fast feedback” on how to structure a similar law in Missouri that she is pursuing.
Elections have consequences. If, as polls indicate, majorities of Americans oppose what the court and the state legislatures appear poised to do, the solution is at the polling places in this year’s November midterms. That’s where this battle for and against self-determination for women will ultimately be waged.
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