I have a slightly different perspective.

I was at university when Roe became law. I remember the early debates, which don't look or sound anything like the nastier modern ones.

Back then, if you were "pro-life", you were pro-life for one main reason: you believed that humanity exists from conception. That principle got phrased a lot of different ways, but it came down to the same thing.

And, know what? The "pro-choice" side respected that position. They often held the same view, so they said, but they also believed that abortion was so fundamental to women's liberty that they had to come down on the side they did.

The catchphrase from the pro-choice group that you often heard was that abortion should be "safe, legal, and rare".

Ah, the days of sane centrism. :-)

Since then, the debate has been hijacked by the extremes. One side is "never, never ever, no way" while the other constantly fights every single restriction, no matter how minor or reasonable.

And what's worse? Polling by respectable companies such as Pew show that a referendum that set centrist targets for abortion (15-18 weeks rather than the current "viability" limit) would seemingly pass in a landside. But despite this, the debate remains hijacked by minorities who want no part of either.

So, we now are where we are. It was all predictable.....and avoidable. The fault is our own.