The Republican Party’s attack on a woman’s right to decide to terminate a pregnancy reached a watershed moment on September 1. By a 5-to-4 margin, the US Supreme Court approved Texas Law SB8, which deputizes 258 million Americans to serve as anti-abortion vigilantes.

Democrats are ready to fight back, and to speak for the majority of Americans who do not believe it is within the power of a state government to flout the basic protections afforded by the Constitution and Roe v. Wade. 

Asked last October what he would do if the right-wing US Supreme Court undercut Roe v. Wade, then-candidate Joe Biden responded: “[T]he only responsible response to that would be to pass legislation to make Roe the law of the land. That’s what I would do.”

Roe v. Wade has been settled law for 48 years. Written by Justice Harry Blackmun, a Nixon appointee, it was a decision reached by an overwhelming 7-to-2 margin. It held that the due process clause of the 14th Amendment, the section that declares “nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law”, prohibits states from outlawing abortion before the point at which a fetus becomes viable.

Forced birth advocacy sprung into action shortly after this landmark 1973 case. In 1976, advocates wrote into the Republican Party Platform the goal of overturning Roe, and replacing it with the empowering of state governments to crack down on abortion. And that has been the Republican position of the last 45 years, backed up by a fulfilled commitment to appointing right-wing ideologues to the Supreme Court.

The majority of Americans believes that abortion should be legal in most or all circumstances. Governments in red states have no use for this common-sense position, preferring instead to toss red meat legislation to their base. Texas is not the only state in which abortion crackdowns are taking place.

Democrats will never accept forced birth zealotry as the law of land. Expect the ACLU and women’s rights groups to spearhead legal efforts to overturn anti-abortion laws in Texas and elsewhere. And standing behind them are President Biden and the Democrats in Congress, who will force votes on the issue. Let those who take a forced birth position opposing women’s rights be warned that their votes on this issue will not go unnoticed in the 2022 mid-term elections.