Have you noticed how all republican candidates sheepishly agree with obsolete pro life stance just to apease small conservative fraction ? This will cause the vast majority of the moderate women to vote for Obama. Republican stupidity seems not to have a limits. Conservative christians and pro lifers will never vote for Obama so why worry about offending them ? Just go for more votes .
The country leans pro-life. http://www.gallup.com/poll/118399/more-americans-pro-life-than-pro-choice-first-time.aspx
The country is very closely divided on this issue. The polls I've seen in the past that do follow-up interviews generally reach the the same conclusion. There are groups at either end of the spectrum (unwaveringly pro or con); and there's a fairly large group in the middle (about 20% of the population) that struggles with difficult issues like when does life actually begin (even many doctors don't have a clear-cut answer to this question). When polling the group in the middle, their views on abortion change based upon personal experiences and what information is available to them at the time the question is asked.
Oliver Wendell Holmes : "We have seen more than once that the public welfare may call upon the best citizens for their lives. It would be strange if it could not call upon those who already sap the strength of the State for these lesser sacrifices, often not felt to be such by those concerned, to prevent our being swamped with incompetence. It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind. The principle that sustains compulsory vaccination is broad enough to cover cutting the Fallopian tubes." -- Buck v Bell, in favor of forced sterilization ------- The US needs to realize there are a whole heckuva lotta imbeciles out there, think red states, that are producing more and more imbeciles everyday. If not abortion, then sterilization.