I don't think you get it NP. A lot of people who personally don't like Abortion, also don't want the government getting involved in it. People simply do not want the government in their private lives. For example, they may personally be against Same Sex Marriage, but they don't want a Federal Constitutional Amendment against it either. Most people think that abortion should be as Clinton put it, safe, legal, and rare. It is these culture wars that Republican's have ginned up that eked them out narrow majorities at the polls the last few elections, but it is these same culture wars that will be the decline of the Republican Party if they keep choosing to fight them. Do you honestly want your party to be a party that is boxed in to the fundamentalist south?
People naturally get a little more socially liberal as time goes on. Wedge issues loose their punch overtime, and eventually it is always the case , they end up being marginalized.
You need to worry about issues that actually matter in people's lives. For example, South Dakota is a plains state. Water is a big issue for many farmers and ranchers in plains states. Political capital expended by Republicans to enact abortion bans, that would inevitably be struck down by the Supreme Court, is polical capital that could have been used in helping ranchers and farmers with water rights and in finding middle ground conservation issues. While you guys go out and fight these culture wars, that in the end mean nothing to the real lives of real people, a Democrat can then come in and talk about the issues that do matter in those states, and win as a result. The fact is, if a farmer is worried about the aquifer that he depends on being depleted, then he probably is not going to give a damn about the abortion debate, flag burning, or gay marriage.
), and thus scared the hell out of everyone else.