Stridently pro-abortion U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens will retire and the most pro-abortion President Barack Obama will get to name his replacement. As Kathryn Jean Lopez says at NRO, this is one reason elections matter. Justice Stevens was one of the five majority votes in Roe v. Wade that struck down state-level prohibitions on abortion in 1973 and he has been a supporter of abortion rights since. A few years ago Stevens said he would not step down from the Supreme Court during the Bush presidency because he didn’t want to politicize the judiciary and the process to name his replacement on the country’s top court. With a 59-seat Democratic (and like-minded allies) majority in the Senate, President Obama will have no trouble naming a hardcore, pro-abortion Leftist to replace the hardcore, pro-abortion Leftist leaving SCOTUS at the end of June. Nope, no politics involved there.

Correction: Stevens was appointed in 1975, two years after Roe. I apologize for the error and the sloppiness of relying on my memory instead of quickly fact-checking it.