How To Make a Lot of People in the Middle Vote Republican

There's a majority of Americans who are not comfortable with abortion. They don't want it banned, but they are not comfortable with how widely it is used as a form of birth control. If it makes you feel better to call them hypocrites for opposing something that they won't call murder, fine, but this is an audience that politicians have to win over to win elections. And now Edwards and Obama are saying something that is going to take a fraction (perhaps a big fraction) of these uncomfortably pro-choice voters, and make them think about voting Republican. From the July 18, 2007 Chicago Tribune:

WASHINGTON -- Elizabeth Edwards said Tuesday that her husband's health-care plan would provide insurance coverage of abortion.

Speaking on behalf of Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards before the family planning and abortion-rights group Planned Parenthood Action Fund, Edwards lauded her husband's health-care proposal as "a true universal health-care plan" that would cover "all reproductive health services, including pregnancy termination," referring to abortion.

Edwards was joined by Democratic candidates Sens. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) at the group's political organizing conference in addressing issues at the core of the political clash between cultural liberals and conservatives, including abortion rights, access to contraception and sex education.

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Obama, who earlier gained the endorsement of Washington, D.C., Mayor Adrian Fenty, offered the group a vision of equal opportunity for women, tying a call for improved access to contraceptives for low-income women with a call for an "updated social contract" that includes paid maternity leave and expanded school hours.

Asked about his proposal for expanded access to health insurance, Obama said it would cover "reproductive-health services." Contacted afterward, an Obama spokesman said that included abortions.