As Passions Flare in Abortion Debate, Many Americans Say ‘It’s Complicated’

The party dropped the word “rare” from its platform in 2008 at the urging of activists who felt it was shaming to women. And Democrats today seldom discuss reducing the number of abortions as a goal. “The argument,” said Ms. Kissling, the pro-abortion rights ethicist, “is if we want to reduce the number of abortions there must be something wrong with it.”

Many on the left are framing it as a question of trusting women, Ms. Kissling added, which she thinks precludes a more comprehensive, persuasive discussion about abortion rights. “We have one answer, the same answer, to every single objection or concern that is raised around abortion,” she said. “It’s not about trusting women, really. Every decision every woman makes about every abortion is an ethically good decision? No. It may not be.”

Some who are progressive-minded on issues other than abortion say the Democratic Party’s embrace of this approach makes it more “pro-abortion” than “pro-women,” leaving them without much of a political home.

In Pittsburgh, Aimee Murphy founded a group called Rehumanize International that hold many positions embraced by progressives: opposing racial discrimination, capital punishment, torture and drone strikes, for instance. But because it also opposes abortion, she said, it has been marginalized in progressive circles. “In mainstream feminist circles, the word pro-life is like a swear word,” she said.

One of Ms. Murphy’s colleagues at Rehumanize, Herb Geraghty, a self-described atheist and Marxist who is bisexual, said when he set up a table at the Pittsburgh L.G.B.T. Pride festival recently, a lot of people wanted to yell at him. But when he tried to draw some of them into a conversation, he was heartened by how well it worked.

“We either want to ban abortion outright or see abortion as good, as empowering,” he said of society in general. But most people think it’s a tough decision, he said, including him. “It’s a hard issue.”