Until the 1970s only a small percentage of Americans believed abortion was wrong and they were evenly split between Rs and Ds. Richard Nixon discovered that he could capitalize on that as a part of "family values" and that's when it began to be a politicized issue. Things have escalated from there. Just as many Republicans and so called "pro-life" women have abortions as anyone else, but they just lie about it and tell themselves they are somehow different than other women. It is a fever-pitch of madness to be sure.

And yes, abortion was common and ubiquitous in the US well into the 1840s, so pretending like that wasn't the case is just a lie for political expediency. It's hypocracy of the highest order.