On the abortion question, John O'Sullivan states what should be obvious: "What people think about abortion is strongly influenced by what they know." What are reasons for the ignorance?
Ramesh Ponnuru provides one in his new book, The Party of Death , about the politics of abortion, stem-cell research, and cloning. He deals, first, with the nature of people’s ignorance. Most Americans, let alone most European sophisticates, have no idea that the landmark Supreme Court decision, Roe v. Wade, establishing a constitutional right to abortion, means that a woman can obtain an abortion right up to the moment of her baby’s birth. When this claim is advanced, they point out that Roe specifically insists that states may regulate abortion in the second trimester and prohibit it in the third trimester.
But Roe also states that states can neither ban nor regulate abortion in cases where a doctor certifies that a woman’s life or health would be adversely affected. And in a second Supreme Court judgment, Doe v. Bolton, delivered that same day, Justice Harry Blackmun wrote that the doctor’s medical judgment should be exercised “in the light of all factors—physical, emotional, psychological, familial, and the woman’s age—relevant to the well-being of the patient.” In brief: unfettered choice posing as a clinical decision.
Roe and Doe together allow a woman and her doctor to have a legal abortion for any reason at any time before birth and arguably even during birth. The courts have confirmed this in countless cases but especially in those striking down state and federal laws to prohibit or regulate “partial birth abortion”—i.e., the procedure in which a baby is partly delivered and, while in the birth canal, has his or her skull crushed and his or her brains sucked out.
Most Americans don’t know this is legal. If they did, they would oppose it. We reasonably infer this from the 2003 Gallup poll that 68 percent of Americans thought that abortion should be “generally illegal” in the second trimester, let alone the third. This popular opposition has grown slowly but steadily for at least the last decade.
There's much more in the article. See also my previous post of May 9th on Ramesh Ponnuru's book.