Pro-lifers and the GOP in '08

Ross Douthat says he understands why so many pro-lifers are put out with the Republican Party, and say that the GOP never really intended to overturn Roe v. Wade in the first place. This, as a prelude to justifying voting Democratic, or withholding their vote from the GOP nominee this fall (Ross is responding to Andy Bacevich's Amconmag piece defending an Obama vote from the right). But, says Ross, they are not thinking this thing through:

It further remains the case that while overturning Roe wouldn't magically restore us to some Ozzie-and-Harriet wonderland, returning control over abortion law to the hands of the voting public remains a necessary goal for any pro-life, socially-conservative politics that takes itself seriously as a change agent in American life. And it further remains the case that to vote for Barack Obama in 2008 is to give up on overturning Roe for at least a decade, probably for two, and possibly for all time. These realities may not require pro-lifers to vote for John McCain, but they deserve more serious consideration that Bacevich affords them.

Read the whole thing. As someone quite prone to this kind of thinking, I concede Ross's point, and thank him for making it.

UPDATE: Larison adds:

...in Prof. Bacevich’s defense I think he does not give them more serious consideration than he did because the GOP doesn’t give this issue very serious consideration. Pro-life voters aren’t blind–they saw a party apparatus that was perfectly willing to embrace the pro-choice Giuliani or the until-very-recently pro-choice Romney, and they saw the vituperation and even hatred shown to Huckabee, one of the most consistently and reliably pro-life candidates in the race, to say nothing of the contempt for Ron Paul, the candidate who secured the endorsment of none other than Norma McCorvey. Are all these people now supposed to pretend that the party and even conservative movement establishments weren’t openly rooting for the defeat of the pro-life candidates and cheering on Giuliani and Romney? Considering the utterly disproportionate opposition to the long-shot candidate in Huckabee compared to the extremely positive and friendly treatment meted out to Giuliani and Romney, you could hardly blame a disaffected pro-life conservative for thinking that the GOP’s main priorities are war and money, and that social issues are good for mobilising turnout and nothing else.