The Supreme Court’s decision to let a draconian Texas law banning most abortions go into effect is a clear signal of what’s coming: This court is poised to eviscerate a fundamental right of women that a strong majority of the nation supports. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has vowed to codify Roe v. Wade into federal law, which may be the only way to ensure that right survives.
Pelosi may well have the House votes to do it. But it would be dead on arrival in the Senate, where the minority party can stop most legislation thanks to the filibuster, that anti-democracy anachronism found nowhere in the Constitution.
There were already myriad reasons for the filibuster to go, but this one may be the most important yet. President Joe Biden should drop his defense of the filibuster and lean on the few holdout Democrats who are preventing its elimination.
