Roe v. Wade is gone for good. This is, of course, very bad for abortion rights. But the decision was never a solid foundation for defending those rights.

Since the Supreme Court struck Roe down, rally signs have demanded we “restore Roe” and Democrats trumpet the need to “codify Roe.” This is wrongheaded.

Roe v. Wade was not a good decision. It was grounded in respect for doctors’ freedoms, not women’s, and in the consumerist right to “choose” an abortion if you could pay for it, not in the right to equality. Three years after the Roe decision, Congress enacted the Hyde Amendment banning federal funding to allow poor women to get abortions. States began enacting more and more restrictions on abortion, requiring parental (and even spousal) notification or consent, forcing ultrasounds, compelling inaccurate speech by health care providers, placing onerous requirements on abortion clinics, barring late-term abortions, and so on.