This week, 44 Democrat senators could not support "a bill that would require a doctor to use all of his skills to preserve the life of a child born alive after an attempted abortion" (Laura Ingraham).

Apart from morality, this is political madness.  In other words, these U.S. senators are on the other side of where most voters are on abortion.

A new Marist poll this week shows a shift in attitudes about abortion:

According to the Marist/Knights of Columbus poll, released February 25, equal percentages of Americans now identify as pro-life and pro-choice.

This is the first time since 2009 that the number of self-identified pro-life Americans is equal to or greater than the number calling themselves pro-choice.

Barbara Carvalho, director of The Marist Poll, said the figures suggest that recent efforts to remove legal restrictions on the procedure, and widen the availability of abortion up to the point of birth, may have led to more people identifying themselves as pro-life.

"Current proposals that promote late-term abortion have reset the landscape and language on abortion in a pronounced — and very measurable — way," she said in a press release.

The pro-abortion critics are already saying this is a sham poll because the Knights of Columbus are behind it.

In fact, there are a couple of new variables in the discussion about abortion.

First, technology now allows an expecting mother to hear her baby's heartbeat earlier than ever, or 12 weeks.  It's hard to defend the notion that this is not a life when a heart is beating.

Second, the talk about late-term abortion has brought the barbarism to the front pages.  Governor Ralph Northam's remarks about keeping the baby comfortable removed the curtain for all to see that this is really about the termination of a life.

Abortion will be an issue in 2020.  It won't be about the woman's body.  It will be about the baby denied an opportunity to live.

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