for the GOP nomination in 2012 - while all professedly pro-life - in reality neither care very much nor think very much about the abortion issue . But now look at the world from the politicians ' point of view . They must hold together a coalition that is sliced apart by the abortion issue . Pro-choice Republicans do not hold forums . But they exist , and they have power . With the result that while you ca n't get nominated for president by the GOP if you are pro-choice -LRB- see Giuliani , Rudy -RRB- , you also ca n't get nominated if you oppose abortion too much -LRB- see Huckabee , Mike -RRB- . For the politicians , it 's all baffling and vexing . And yet -- incredible as it sounds now -- there is reason to expect that the abortion issue may someday just vanish from national politics . After all , that 's what happened to the last great moral issue to rattle the American party system : alcohol prohibition . For 70 years from the end of the Civil War to the Great Depression , a human lifetime , the `` drys ''
Washington -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- What 's the most emotional and divisive issue in American politics ? Abortion , right ? Just this weekend , former Republican front-runner Rick Perry used the abortion issue to slam current Republican front-runner Herman Cain at the Iowa Faith and Freedom forum . Perry said : `` It is a liberal canard to say I am personally pro-life , but government should stay out of that decision . If that is your view , you are not pro-life , you are pro having-your-cake-and-eating-it-too . '' Over the previous week , Herman Cain had alarmed anti-abortion voters with a series of verbal miscues , indicating both that abortion must be stopped but also that the decision should be left to the individual woman , with no role for government . At the Faith and Freedom forum , Cain over-corrected for his week of stumbles : `` No abortions . No exceptions . '' That new position goes far beyond the usual pro-life policy , which allows exceptions for rape , child abuse , and to save the life of the mother . Pro-life activists must unhappily confront the probability that many of the leading candidates