Yes, I have heard that stated. It's conceivable it could happen, however. My other point is valid in any case: Change "health" to "life" in the abortion debate, and we have made progress.
I was just saying this to DH, as he recounted Rudy's SH interview. I said, even if we got the standard changed to "life of the mother," rather than "health," this would be incremental progress.
When a change such as that is made, the courts have to recognize that "life" must mean something different from what "health" meant, otherwise the change would be meaningless. So this would represent an actual tightening of the standard.
Not saying liberal courts wouldn't still try to read into it, but it would open doors even to be able to debate the point in court.