Which conservatives would these be? Not the ones who are actually in power, and that is indeed why they fail conservatism.
The conservative politicians who were most successful at advancing the cause - I'm particularly thinking of Goldwater and Reagan - most certainly did not talk around the subject. They weren't afraid of criticism, and so they were able to stare it down. The nice guys won't get anywhere.
Reagan was not as obsessive about anti-abortion legislation as he often seemed. Early in his California governorship he had signed a permissive abortion bill that has resulted in more than a million abortions. Afterward, he inaccurately blamed this outcome on doctors, saying that they had deliberately misinterpreted the law. When Reagan ran for president, he won backing from pro-life forces by advocating a constitutional amendment that would have prohibited all abortions except when necessary to save the life of the mother. Reagan’s stand was partly a product of political calculation, as was his tactic after he was elected of addressing the annual pro-life rally held in Washington by telephone so that he would not be seen with the leaders of the movement on the evening news. While I do not doubt Reagan’s sincerity in advocating an anti-abortion amendment, he invested few political resources toward obtaining this goal.
Source: The Role of a Lifetime, by Lou Cannon, p. 812 Jul 2, 1991
Perhaps it is not quite fair to hold President Bush to a much higher standard. I admire and respect both President Reagan and President Bush but perhaps they are not quite as different as some would have us believe.