“There had been a time, in the 15 years after Roe, when Republicans were as likely as Democrats to support an absolute right to legal abortion, and sometimes even more so.”
Two neighbors of my parents’ generation, both Republicans, liked abortion because it was a means of population control.
I can vouch for that observation within my staunch Republican family. My aunt was a township committeeman in Nassau County, NY. She was very pro-abortion in the 70’s.