Reply #34: In the 60's and early 70's, abortion wasn't a big issue among evengelicals.

[JHB]

There were some, but most considered it a "Catholic" issue. It was deliberately cultivated by conservative operatives during the 70's as a wedge issue to help split working class whites off from the New Deal coalition. Look up the careers of Paul Weyrich and Richard Viguere and their courting of people like Jerry Falwell.

The evangelicals eventually took to it because it let them play the moral high ground against the change in sexual mores and womens' place in society (being "pro-life" is certainly easier to sell than being an anti-sex scold).