You want a purely secular reason for banning abortion? How about the 14th Amendment- equal protection under the law. Medically and scientifically speaking, there can be no question that a fetus is a human, and thus ought to be entitled to protection under the Constitution.
And to answer your question about social conservatives abandoning principle to vote for fiscal conservatives- the answer is a resounding absolutely not. Abortion, euthanasia, infanticide, embryonic stem cell research and gay marriage are non-negotiable issues. Social conservatives consider like me consider them a litmus test, and we will not vote for anyone who supports any one of those abominations. We absolutely agree with fiscal conservatives about fiscal policy, but it is not the most important part of the conservative stool. We embrace all the fiscal conservative’s policies, but we will not vote for someone who does not accept our values. Don’t believe me? Look at who was pushing the Fair Tax during the primaries: Huckabee, Hunter and Paul, not the fiscal conservative’s idol Mitt Romney. If voting our values means we are doomed to permanent minority status, then the country I love is on its deathbed. If so, good riddance. We’ll just have to wait for the King of Kings to subdue the evils of this world.
