The recent announcement of a leaked opinion from the U.S. Supreme Court, highlighting a pending decision that would wipe out the protection of Roe v. Wade, immediately brought to mind two people.

One of them is the Scottish poet Robert Burns and the other is Japanese Admiral Isoroko Yamamato. Sounds strange? Not really.

Robert Burns wrote many a delightful poem. But the abortion decision brought to mind his poem “To A Mouse.” In that poem he wrote that “the best laid plans of mouse and men go often astray.”

For the past year, the Washington Republican establishment has been predicting that the November elections would be a political wipeout and that Democratic congressional seats would disappear in massive numbers.

To bolster their campaigns they have focused on such issues as crime, immigration, parents’ rights, voter fraud and a variety of other issues. Florida Gov. Ron De Santis has embraced all of those themes and added it to the passage of a highly restrictive anti-abortion law. At the same time as the Republicans have been beating their chests, the Democratic Party has been floundering, unable to settle on one particular campaign theme.

But time and tide can change things and the anticipated Supreme Court decision dismantling Roe v. Wade is giving the Democratic Party a significant issue that could have a major impact on the November election results. The banning of abortion is not just a women’s issue. It impacts families and that includes husbands. The future of abortion cuts across party lines. It isn’t just Democratic women who are affected by this potential decision; it is women of all political groups.

The Republican strategists were just as aware as most other Americans that the Supreme Court was expected to render a decision by June on a Mississippi case that limits abortions to 15 weeks. But the leak of the proposed decision by Justice Alito caught them totally off guard. The best response that the Republican leadership could utter was to express their dismay over the fact that a draft decision had gotten out into the media and there wasn’t one word uttered about a woman’s right to control her own body.

For years, most Republican politicians have avoided taking a stand on the issue of a woman’s right to abortion. Some in the red states have been outspoken on the issue, but the ones in states that tend to vote Democratic have skirted the issue. With the debate now in the public arena, the Republican November election blueprint has been thrown out the window. There is no doubt that crime and immigration will still have an impact, but abortion will also be at the top of the issue list.

How does Admiral Isoroko Yamamato fit into the abortion battle? If you are a fan of old war World War II movies, you may recall the movie “Midway,” which is a story about the bombing of American facilities on Dec. 7, 1941. Whether it has historical proof behind it or not, after the attack the admiral states, “I fear that all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”

For the past 20-plus years, the anti-abortion movement has been making slow and steady progress towards their goal of banning abortions. Up to now, they have succeeded in getting bans passed in at least 16 states. Anxious to advance their cause, they have gotten these states to pass draconian laws that don’t even allow an abortion in the case of rape or incest. The pro-choice movement has been loud, but not effective in rallying its forces.

But the anticipated Alito decision has stirred the pro-choice advocates and the first of many public demonstrations have started and they will grow bigger and bigger. All candidates for federal and some state offices will have to deal with a newly awakened movement that will be an equal match to the anti-groups. Elections that once tilted in favor of the Republicans will now become toss -ups. In short, like the admiral stated, the pro-choice movement is the “sleeping giant” that is now awake.