The backlash to the end of abortion rights helped fuel Democratic wins in last year's election cycle, and Republicans are freaking out about the 2024 contest, according to a new report.

The U.S. Supreme Court struck down the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling that guaranteed reproductive rights for nearly a half-century, and suddenly Republicans found themselves defending deeply unpopular abortion bans that many of them support -- but few other Americans do, wrote New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg.

"It’s not surprising that voters have reacted with revulsion to being stripped of rights they’d long taken for granted, and to seeing the health of pregnant women treated so cavalierly," Goldberg wrote. "But the backlash seems to have caught Republicans off guard."

Many Republicans assumed voters wouldn't care about the end of abortion rights, or even turn against those who were outraged by the decision, but that hasn't been the case.