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.
