The push notification materialized in deafening silence. News website Politico had leaked an initial draft of Supreme Court majority opinion overturning Roe v. Wade. The day that pro-choice America had been dreading (or had uneasily tried to convince themselves would never actually come) had dawned.

The opinion, written by conservative justice Samuel Alito, shook me to my core. My fury, however, didn’t stem from believing that Alito’s words were wrong, even if I was aghast at what they meant for America. Quite the contrary: I was furious because I knew he was right.

“The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision,” Alito writes. Americans can debate the merits of strict versus liberal constructionism all day long, but at the end of that day, he’s not incorrect. The Constitution was never amended to include abortion rights. Wishing it had been and believing that it should be (and I’ve done both) doesn’t change that reality. Plenty of states all over the country have blithely decimated abortion rights for years with no repercussions because Roe v. Wade was only a legal precedent, not a law.

This isn’t news to abortion rights proponents, but it isn’t as though America never had a chance to codify Roe v. Wade. Since the Supreme Court decided that case in 1973, Democrats — purportedly the champions of bodily autonomy for women — have captured unified control of the federal government three times, under Presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama, respectively. If our elected representatives really cared about this particular issue, they could have made it happen, and yet here we are.

But I don’t lay the blame solely at the feet of politicians. Certainly, they are a group notorious for speaking in platitudes and making sweeping promises that never come to fruition. They don’t, however, elect themselves. We do.

Women — presumably the demographic that cares the most about abortion rights — are registered to vote in higher numbers than men, a number that has been trending upward for years. Additionally, women have historically higher voter turnout than men. And yet, anti-abortion politicians keep getting elected, and coastal liberals like myself, are appalled every time.

Here’s what we keep missing: party darlings like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders aren’t appealing to most of America. I was a Warren diehard leading up to the 2020 election, as were many people I knew. I just couldn’t understand her stunning Super Tuesday defeat if so many people were behind her. I finally realized that “so many people” consisted of myself and a tiny echo chamber of friends. It was a big country out there, and her message wasn’t resonating.

As the Democratic Party drags itself further to the left, I fear that message will wither that much more. Our voices may get louder, but the people shouting are few, and “few” is generally not a great strategy for winning elections. The majority of Americans may say that they generally favor abortion rights, but when they show up to the polls, some other fear — of socialism, of economic collapse, however unfounded — takes over, and they end up voting for a candidate who speaks to those issues, even if that candidate is anti-abortion. The long, slow march that we’ve trudged since Roe v. Wade’s passing, paved with conservative judges appointed by conservative governments, has led us here.

Abortion rights will now transfer to the hands of state governments. Whether an individual state decides to allow abortion will not affect those in higher income brackets, who will be able to simply hop a plane to whatever state (or country) allows them to obtain the services they need. Only the poor and disenfranchised will suffer, and it will be up to the voters — who claim to care about the poor and disenfranchised — to hold lawmakers accountable.

Thank you for reading! When you become a Medium member, you support my work as well as the work of other writers on this platform. Click here to join.