Ramesh, I think the amazing thing about the consistent polling support for a ban on partial-birth abortion is our national media uniformly despises covering the issue. The present ban was introduced in 2002, but the media elite was trying to ignore it. (I was there at the Capitol Hill press conference. After the remarks for the camera or maybe two cameras, Rep. Steve Chabot was “surrounded” by me and Amy Fagan of the Washington Times.)
Often people have stumbled onto the issue while flipping past C-SPAN. Rick Santorum tells the story of a woman deciding not to have a “normal” abortion after flipping past one of the debates. Focusing on this one horrific procedure casts a pall over all abortions, and the partisans of “choice” know it.
Whatever Saletan thinks has occurred in “moving right” in this abortion debate, it had next to zero help from the “objective” national press.