I think one thing that led up to this renewed focus on abortion was National Geograph’s In the Womb and related advances in ultrasound, including 3D. Once you look at a 13 week “fetus” it’s pretty obvious there’s a living, breathing, kicking, thinking, human being in there who, if just given another couple of months, could survive just fine outside the womb. I haven’t seen any studies, but I would bet that support for 2nd and 3rd trimester abortions has fallen significantly.
And the second issue is how any legal restrictions would be enforced. I think its an easier sell and probably more effective to enforce them at the medical professional level rather than prosecuting individual women.
However, political support for this or that is meaningless, isn’t it? The court has already invented the right for abortion up until the last minute, something virtually no American supports. (Aside from Barack Obama, who voted for Born Alive.)
