By a vote of 6-3, on June 24, 2022, the United States Supreme Court put an end to the right of women to have abortions. Five of the six justices who voted to end the right to abortion were nominated by two presidents, George W. Bush and Donald Trump, both of whom lost the popular vote, but became president, despite finishing in second place, thanks to the Electoral College system.

In 2000, George W. Bush lost to Al Gore by 543,895 votes. But he won the Electoral College vote 271-266 and ended up in the White House. He was reelected in 2004, defeating John Kerry by more than 3 million votes. But if Gore, having won the most votes in 2000, had been inaugurated president, it’s a real stretch to imagine that Bush would have been able to come back and defeat him four years later. It was during Bush’s second term that he nominated John Roberts and Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. Would President Al Gore, in his second term, have nominated two justices who were opposed to women having the right to choose an abortion? Not likely.

In 2016, Donald Trump lost to Hillary Clinton by 2,869,686 votes, but, again thanks to the Electoral College system, he entered the White House anyway…and nominated three anti-abortion activists to the Supreme Court. Would first-place winner Clinton have chosen anti-abortion activists for the Supreme Court? Not a chance.

By the way, it is worth noting that George W. Bush’s 2004 victory was the only time in the last eight U.S. presidential elections that a Republican candidate has earned more than 50% of the popular vote. Bush won 50.7%.

-David Wallechinsky