Add this to the fact that, in those years, about 90% of bishops were dyed-in-the-wool Democrats, having grown up in a household where the father was a member of a major union, and the bishops response to abortion was pathetic. They were far more hostile to the Reagan tax rate cuts than to abortion.
Refreshing admission. If i had posted that that knee-jerk Roman reactionaries would likely go into attack mode.
The pro-life movement in the U.S. is 99% the work of Catholic and Protestant laity. The Catholic bishops have, as a group, been a hindrance. The Catholic bishops greatest success was the snuffing out of the Rescue Movement.
Actually, on the Protestant side it is mainly evangelicals, and they do have strong pastoral support, R. C. Sproul being one (Abortion: A Rational Look at An Emotional Issue ) and here .
"The Bible is a fallible collection of infallible books" --R. C. Sproul