If you’ve had that weird taste of injustice in your mouth ever since hearing about the leaked draft opinion that suggests the conservative majority on the Supreme Court is getting ready to overturn Roe v. Wade, there’s a good reason for it. It’s the latest and potentially most egregious example of how years of undoing and undermining democratic processes has resulted in minority rule in the United States.
According to the leaked draft, there are five justices who are ready to overturn Roe, which has been considered “settled law” — including by them! — for half a century. They are Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett, Samuel Alito, and Clarence Thomas. Talking Points Memo points out four of those justices were appointed by presidents who lost the popular vote (Alito by George W. Bush, and Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, and Barrett by Donald Trump). Even more jarring: every single one of them were confirmed by senators who represent a minority of voters.
By overturning the protections granted by Roe, these minority-supported and appointed justices will go against the will of most Americans, who broadly support abortion access. Americans support upholding Roe by a two-to-one margin, and 80% believe that abortion should be legal in at least some circumstances.
The Supreme Court decision, should it go as expected, would push abortion access back down to the states, where as many as 32 states already have near or total bans on the essential health care practice on the books. This is in no small part the result of gerrymandering and restrictions on ballot access creating nearly unsurmountable Republican control of states that would otherwise be more competitive and moderate.
This is what eroding democracy looks like.
