Support for abortion rights eroding?

[UtahDan]

Here is an excerpt from a blog that highlights the issue:

The Stupak amendment, which bans the federal government from paying for abortion or paying for insurance plans that cover abortion, has more bipartisan support than nearly any other feature of the House health care bill. Its passage, with the support of almost all Republicans and a quarter of the Democrats, is the latest sign that abortion supporters are losing ground.

Last week, pro-life candidates won gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey. In both states, the Democrats tried to make the Republicans' pro-life position an issue. In both states, the successful Republican take a firmer anti-abortion line than either of their states' two previous elected Republican governors (Allen and Gilmore in Virginia, Kean and Whitman in New Jersey).

Earlier this year, Gallup found in two polls that for the first time, slightly more Americans consider themselves pro-life than pro-choice.

Now pro-choice Democrats in the House are trying to fight back, insisting that they won't back liberal health-care legislation unless it includes abortion payments. But their threats ring hollow since they have already voted for a bill without those payments. Does anyone really think that pro-choice Democrats are more likely than pro-life Democrats to walk away from the bill if they don't get their way?

Isn't the bigger problem for pro-choicers, though, that public support for their cause keeps slowly fading away

I think there are a lot of signs that the much heralded death of conservatism was a lot of fanciful thinking. I have thought for a long time that if the pro-lifers (or at least the militant ones) would stop acting crazy and couch this as a human rights issue that over the long arc public sentiment would turn their way. Probably never to an all out ban, though.

[I.J. Reilly]

I was amazed to see the Stupak amendment as part of the bill. The lack of public outcry has been a bit of a headscratcher and does create interesting questions as to where our country is heading (not in the hell in a handbasket way, more in the political movement sense).

Perhaps this is just indicative of a larger antipathy toward government. I certainly would never have expected to have seen something like this, especially without a fight, in the 70's, 80's or even 90's.

[UtahDan]

That this is uncontroversial and unremarked upon speaks volumes.

[Non Sequitur]

I wonder if in the long run this is a victory for Republicans or Democrats. For the last 20 years the backbone of the conservative movement has been the Christian Right, and the elimination of abortion rights has been a large part of their platform. It has been a line of demarcation between the two sides. If abortion is no longer a partisan issue, does that at all affect the conservative support base?

[Goatnapper'96]

I wonder if in the long run this is a victory for Republicans or Democrats. For the last 20 years the backbone of the conservative movement has been the Christian Right, and the elimination of abortion rights has been a large part of their platform. It has been a line of demarcation between the two sides. If abortion is no longer a partisan issue, does that at all affect the conservative support base?

Yes it does. If this is a genuine legitimate shift of the nationwide political consciousness, it will help to eliminate the control of the RR on the Republican Party. This mixed with Obama/Pelosi/Reid gift wrapping the moral highground on fiscal conservativism back to the Republican Party could move the party back towards social libertarianism/fiscal conservativism.

That would make my nipples hard!

Not that my analysis is a wish list or anything........

[il Padrino Ute]

I wonder if in the long run this is a victory for Republicans or Democrats. For the last 20 years the backbone of the conservative movement has been the Christian Right, and the elimination of abortion rights has been a large part of their platform. It has been a line of demarcation between the two sides. If abortion is no longer a partisan issue, does that at all affect the conservative support base?

I think it would shift the focus on the GOP away from the religious right and back to the fiscal conservatives.

Abortion has been a platform of the Democrats for several decades now and if abortion rights are no longer partisan, what happens to the Dems? Will groups like NOW and Planned Parenthood lament the fact that their party has caved to the Religious Right?

It seems to me that the elimination of abortion rights would be a victory for the GOP.

[UtahDan]

I wonder if in the long run this is a victory for Republicans or Democrats. For the last 20 years the backbone of the conservative movement has been the Christian Right, and the elimination of abortion rights has been a large part of their platform. It has been a line of demarcation between the two sides. If abortion is no longer a partisan issue, does that at all affect the conservative support base?

That is an interesting point. Notwithstanding the screaming by people on each extreme, I believe there is a pretty solid consensus that has formed around abortion. Basically, people think it should be legal but they don't oppose any number of reasonable restrictions and in the main view it as a bad thing. As this legislation seems to show, folks don't seem to anxious to have them be publicly funded either. From a personal responsibility standpoint, that makes sense to me. I'm not to tell you you can't have it, but you should pay for it.

[UtahDan]

And now more erosion of abortion rights: