Once the issue goes to the states, Republican governors and state lawmakers face the same problem McConnell is ducking: broad pro-choice sentiment. In February, when a Yahoo News survey asked whether “states should be able to outlaw” abortion or whether it’s “a constitutional right that women in all states should have some access to,” most voters chose the latter. Only about 30 percent chose states’ rights.

That, in turn, leads to the final punt. If pro-life voters want to restrict abortion, and if pro-choice voters don’t want politicians to decide the issue, why not let the two sides fight it out? In the Reuters poll, voters of all persuasions—Republicans, Democrats, and independents—preferred referenda to state legislation as a means of deciding abortion policy. By organizing or encouraging ballot measures, governors and legislators could extract themselves from the issue.

That would be a fitting answer to the court’s withdrawal from the abortion debate. In its draft opinion, the court complains that Roe bypassed democracy, depriving pro-life citizens of the right to “persuade their elected representatives to adopt policies consistent with their views.” The opinion concludes, in a tone of righteous beneficence, that “the authority to regulate abortion must be returned to the people and their elected representatives.”

Don’t expect a thank-you note from the people’s representatives.