Congress, abortion rights and eliminating the filibuster

The Supreme Court's decision to let a draconian Texas law banning most abortions go into effect before the litigation over it plays out 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.

Texas' Senate Bill 8 outlaws abortion as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, a point at which many women don't even know they're pregnant. It blatantly violates Roe, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court case protecting women's right to abortion until the fetus can viably live outside the womb, generally 22 to 24 weeks.

The Texas law makes no exception for the victims of rape or incest. The law also creates a bizarre enforcement mechanism that lets any citizen sue anyone involved in obtaining an abortion. This completely tosses the legal concept of "standing" — that is, the requirement that in order to sue someone, a plaintiff must demonstrate having been directly harmed by the defendant's actions. Anyone off the street can claim standing to sue anyone who aids a woman in getting an abortion, including doctors, nurses and even the driver who took her to the clinic. Plaintiffs who win can collect $10,000 per case plus legal expenses. It's effectively a bounty on women's rights.

Chief Justice John Roberts noted that "unprecedented" mechanism in siding with the court's liberal minority, voting to suspend the law until litigation plays out. Such suspensions are common for new laws facing legal challenges. But the high court's conservative majority refused to grant the injunction, allowing the law to take effect last week. It's an ominous foreshadowing of what the court might do when it is, inevitably, asked to review the law itself.

Biden rightly condemned the law for unleashing "unconstitutional chaos" against women and ordered his administration to study how the federal government might step in to protect Roe.

In fact, the solution is right in front of him. Pelosi's plan to pursue federal legislation is the obvious route but for the Senate filibuster. If Biden is truly committed to protecting women, he will drop his support for maintaining the filibuster and push for its removal. It's the only way to stop Senate Republicans from holding America hostage on this issue — and on many others.