Why America is becoming more polarized on abortion

Yet most people are not rationalists. They treat a miscarriage at three weeks as a misfortune but categorically different in gravity than burying a two-year-old child. They also consider it morally obscene to end the life of a healthy 30-week-old fetus in utero if the baby would otherwise survive and thrive outside the womb.

These elemental and perfectly sound moral intuitions are reflected in abortion law across the European Union, where abortions are protected and easily available almost everywhere up to around 12 weeks but rapidly become restricted after that.

But not in the United States.

Here, the pro-life movement wants abortion banned outright, while pro-choice activists increasingly favor abortion with little restriction, even in the third trimester. Add to that America’s distinctive brand of federalism and an emboldened conservative majority on the Supreme Court and we could end up with a truly bizarre, morally warped reality.