1/ Now here's something I can agree with Tomi Lahren about. Yes, do some reading on Goldwater on abortion. You will discover an unedifying spectacle. He criticized Roe in 1973 and, when politically advantageous to him, endorsed the Right to Life amendment to overturn it in 1980.
2/ That won him endorsements from Arizona pro-life groups for his re-election campaign. Later, when opposing killing unborn babies was no longer politically useful to him, he discovered his inner Margaret Sanger. Goldwater did not distinguish himself for integrity on abortion.
3/ Many Republicans of Goldwater's era saw abortion as a solution to personal *and social* problems (such as poor people on welfare having "too many" babies). Since the child in the womb is out of view, they could pretend he or she didn't exist. Another unedifying bit of history.
4/ The Republican Party did not become firmly pro-life (to the extent that it is) until the Reagan Democrats flooded into the Party in the 1980s, bringing their pro-life convictions with them. Also remember that there were in those days still many pro-life liberals and Democrats.
