Reply #37: I think Abortion, Gay Rights and Immigration formed a triad for inciting the bigots

[NorthCarolina]

and fueling political donations. The fundamentalist Churches quickly discovered these same issues could be pushed to drive the holy bigots into a frenzy of hate, thereby feeding the Po-box. Couple that with a public media that faithfully painted these "concerns" as main-stream thought by a "center-right" nation, they succeeded in dividing the people amongst themselves. A divided populace is easier to manipulate. It was obviously and intentional process carried over these past decades, and what we see today is very likely the desired end result. An uneducated, poor and divided populace, unable to communicate their demands to their elected officials without the conservative filter of the public media.

So, was abortion "the issue"...no. Rather, it was one of several issues created expressly for public consumption.