Taking modern biases out of it, I'm surprised the two parties reacted like they did to this issue ... As another poster already said, I could easily see a scenario where conservatives got behind a "keep the government out of our bodies" POV and liberals got behind a "save the poor fetus who needs our help" POV.
The outsized presence of wealthy white Protestants in the movements for birth control of the late 19th/early 20th centuries has some implications that are...um, concerning?
Yes.
Up to that point a lot of movements that were supported by wealthy white Protestants were done so with the intent of curtailing the population of "undesirables". The Puritans in particular had views about the Irish that could very easily be compared to Nazi rhetoric about the Jews (one particular source has the author referring to the Irish as "St. Patrick's Vermin"). The Know Nothing Party, which was actually quite vicious in it's racism, would leave a long and lasting legacy with many Irish Catholics, who saw former members of said party leave in droves to the Republican Party. Later on of course many people involved in the Eugenics movement had some very Himmleresque views about "people of poor character" which generally referred to Southern and Eastern European ethnic communities whose cultures they considered to be savage and uncouth. Jewish immigrants especially were seen in an extremely negative light, with scientific racists charging that many Jews had "negro blood and mannerisms" (Jews dominated the early professional basketball scene that would later be dominated by black players).
So yes, it's quite easy to see how many ethnic whites, even the pretty liberal ones, would be skeptical of the abortion rights movement. It would probably be only later when many liberal Catholics thought through the implications of not having the option to a safe and legal abortion that they started drifting more and more toward the pro-choice side. Of course I would also claim that many liberal Catholics, particularly Ted Kennedy, were probably waiting to switch sides once the force of law was on their side.
An interesting subject to be sure.
