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Ruth Bader Ginsburg sends everyone to the dictionary with 'faute de mieux'

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Faute de mieux – faute de what?

When Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg used the French phrase in Monday’s landmark ruling striking down a Texas abortion law, the general public headed to the dictionary.

After the release of the opinion, Merriam-Webster said look-ups for the French phrase spiked 495,000 percent on its website.

Faute de mieux is roughly translated as "for lack of a better alternative." The Texas bill would have closed all but nine abortion clinics across the state. Ginsburg was emphasizing how the law might force women without the means to resort to unsafe illegal clinics to perform their abortions.

While the majority opinion was written by Justice Stephen Breyer, in her concurring brief, Ginsberg wrote: "When a state severely limits access to safe and legal procedures, women in desperate circumstances may resort to unlicensed rogue practitioners, faute de mieux, at great risk to their health and safety.”

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