Roe vs. Wade is dead. Whether the Supreme Court finally overrules it--this year or next--is a formality, the signing of a coroner's certificate. Roe will not be lost in the courts, because it has already been lost on the streets.

In much of America, there is no right to abortion. In 83% of all counties, there are no clinics or hospitals willing to perform an abortion. Second-trimester abortions--even when the mother is seriously ill, or the fetus will not survive--are still harder to come by. There's one place in Southern California that I've heard of, and one in Boulder, Colo.--but neither has a sign on the door, and they certainly don't invite publicity.

The only doctor who performs abortions in South Dakota works in a cinder-block office, protected by alarms and bulletproof windows. The only doctor who performs abortions in North Dakota lives in Minnesota. The number of hospitals offering abortions dropped 50% from 1977 to 1988, while only 13% of the nation's residency programs now train young doctors to perform first-trimester abortions.

Meanwhile, the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court deliberate on yet another abortion case--which will, no doubt, curtail access to abortion even more, while paying lip service to the tattered remnants of Roe vs. Wade. After all, this is an election year.

Judges and politicians have certainly played an important role in stripping American women of their right to privacy. Courts have upheld restrictions on the use of public funds and public hospitals, effectively blocking access for poor women. As far back as 1979, they upheld restrictions on the rights of minors to have abortions. They also tolerated a variety of consent rules and record-keeping requirements that increase the cost of abortions, albeit fewer than those Pennsylvania will almost certainly be permitted to impose by the Supreme Court.

The tactic of making access most difficult for women with the least power--the young, the poor, women who don't have private physicians willing to help--has been politically and judicially encouraged. If middle-class women had lost their rights first, it would be another story.

But at least laws are passed by democratically elected majorities. What is most pernicious about the loss of abortion rights in this country is the extent to which it has been a triumph of a small minority--elected to no office, appointed to no court--practicing the politics of coercion, with a wink and a nod from those who should know better.