"2. Of all the changes from the 1960’s and 70’s generally classified as socially liberal, abortion is unusual, and possibly unique in that it has retained sustained opposition. Something is going on."
Only in the US. In other countries like France and Japan it's a non-issue.
"There remain a number of strategies to be tried. My current favorite, for what it’s worth, is a campaign using Jay Watts-style apologetics."
All I saw was "Jesus Jesus praise Jesus," how is that new? A truly novel strategy would try to appeal to non-religious people.
Regarding Jay Watts, I’ve seen him twice in person and he mentioned Jesus not at all or possibly only rarely. After seeing your comment, I started the first few videos on his website and realized that the first one is (or starts at least) bible-centric, but the next two don’t. Presumably, the first video was to an explicitly Christian gathering. I would recommend viewing the second one (to the Michigan group) if you are curious. What I was getting at was that I think a focus on “What exactly is the nature of this unborn thing?” would help a lot.
Regarding your other point, I could obviously respond that my bet is about the United States, but I think you are making a broader point about my claim that abortion is special. Legalizing abortion dates from the 1960s and 1970s. Other so-called socially liberal changes from the same era that I would consider comparison issues are the legalization of birth control and sodomy and the outlawing and disapproval of explicit discrimination against women and persons of color. I suspect that, even in the rest or the industrialized world, undoing the legalization of abortion, while typically less popular than in the US, generally has more support than undoing the other changes.
(Technically, some US states had sodomy laws well after the period in question, but it is my understanding that these were mostly unenforced starting in about the 1970s. Anyway, if the change is more recent and more accepted, that strengthens my point.)
I don't think I can link in the comments, but international opinion on abortion is easy to find. Out of curiosity, I spent 5-10 minutes googling worldwide or European data on each of the comparison issues, and with one exception, couldn’t find any polling at all. I take that to be evidence the changes have so taken hold in the industrialized world that nobody is even bothering to poll them, but it could be my google-fu and if anyone has more information, I’d be interested in it.
The one exception was a poll specific to Eastern Europe that found the statement “When jobs are scarce, men should have more rights to a job than women” had 19-65% agreement, depending on the county, in 2015-2016, which I would not have expected a priori, but was not enough to change my mind. And the same poll also showed support for legal abortion at levels lower than I would have expected by that time given that abortion had been legal for decades in most of those countries (possibly all except Poland?). That poll is https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2017/05/10/social-views-and-morality/#:~:text=Many%20adults%20in%20Central%20and,not%20be%20accepted%20by%20society.
"2. Of all the changes from the 1960’s and 70’s generally classified as socially liberal, abortion is unusual, and possibly unique in that it has retained sustained opposition. Something is going on."
Only in the US. In other countries like France and Japan it's a non-issue.
"There remain a number of strategies to be tried. My current favorite, for what it’s worth, is a campaign using Jay Watts-style apologetics."
All I saw was "Jesus Jesus praise Jesus," how is that new? A truly novel strategy would try to appeal to non-religious people.
Regarding Jay Watts, I’ve seen him twice in person and he mentioned Jesus not at all or possibly only rarely. After seeing your comment, I started the first few videos on his website and realized that the first one is (or starts at least) bible-centric, but the next two don’t. Presumably, the first video was to an explicitly Christian gathering. I would recommend viewing the second one (to the Michigan group) if you are curious. What I was getting at was that I think a focus on “What exactly is the nature of this unborn thing?” would help a lot.
Regarding your other point, I could obviously respond that my bet is about the United States, but I think you are making a broader point about my claim that abortion is special. Legalizing abortion dates from the 1960s and 1970s. Other so-called socially liberal changes from the same era that I would consider comparison issues are the legalization of birth control and sodomy and the outlawing and disapproval of explicit discrimination against women and persons of color. I suspect that, even in the rest or the industrialized world, undoing the legalization of abortion, while typically less popular than in the US, generally has more support than undoing the other changes.
(Technically, some US states had sodomy laws well after the period in question, but it is my understanding that these were mostly unenforced starting in about the 1970s. Anyway, if the change is more recent and more accepted, that strengthens my point.)
I don't think I can link in the comments, but international opinion on abortion is easy to find. Out of curiosity, I spent 5-10 minutes googling worldwide or European data on each of the comparison issues, and with one exception, couldn’t find any polling at all. I take that to be evidence the changes have so taken hold in the industrialized world that nobody is even bothering to poll them, but it could be my google-fu and if anyone has more information, I’d be interested in it.
The one exception was a poll specific to Eastern Europe that found the statement “When jobs are scarce, men should have more rights to a job than women” had 19-65% agreement, depending on the county, in 2015-2016, which I would not have expected a priori, but was not enough to change my mind. And the same poll also showed support for legal abortion at levels lower than I would have expected by that time given that abortion had been legal for decades in most of those countries (possibly all except Poland?). That poll is https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2017/05/10/social-views-and-morality/#:~:text=Many%20adults%20in%20Central%20and,not%20be%20accepted%20by%20society.