Overturning Roe Would Be a Win for Democracy

Last night, I ventured down to the Supreme Court — just a 30-minute walk from my house — to witness the protests that were gathering in response to the bombshell Politico leak suggesting that the Court intends to overturn Roe v. Wade. It was an . . . interesting crowd:

But one interaction I had is worth addressing further. In an interview, a reporter from a local TV station asked me whether I had any qualms about the fact that a court of “majority white men” was going to potentially overrule the will of the people. This is a standard pro-choice talking point — that “powerful white men” seeking to overturn Roe are engaged in a fundamentally anti-democratic project. As the progressive writer John Ganz wrote in a Substack post today, titled “The Slow and Sudden Death of Majority Rule: Thoughts on Roe v. Wade”:

Polls consistently show a majority of the American public in support of abortion rights and against the overturning of Roe v. Wade, yet, with the astonishing news last night, we appear to be on the precipice of abortion becoming illegal in most of the states in the Union. The laws already in place—or to be triggered immediately after Roe is struck down—are not mere “abortion bans,” but cruel exactions, intended to criminalize and punish women. How is this possible in a democratic nation of millions? The Conservative Movement played the long game and worked tirelessly, for decades, on controlling the least democratic of our constitutional institutions: a council of nine lifetime-appointed judges.