The Democratic Party, generally regarded as more liberal, has unsurprisingly come to be identified with the pro-choice cause; however, the actual relationship between the Democratic Party and the right to abortion is not as simple as party formulations might suggest. Initially, the right to abortion was championed by a Republican-dominated Supreme Court and opposed by a Democratic President (Carter). It was only during the Reagan presidency, when the Republican Party adopted a strong and proselytizing traditional family values position, that the various elements of the Democratic Party coalesced around the right to abortion as a central party principle.
To this day, on the issue of abortion alone, the Democratic Party has taken a position that is very clear; abortion should be legal, rare, and laws proscribing abortion should be consistent with Roe v. Wade. Roe v. Wade articulated a standard which weighed the right of a woman to choose against the right of the unborn child. What Roe did was to set a standard by which a law could be judged as legitimate. This standard is the trimester standard, in the last trimester the state can proscribe abortion. That is prohibit it, making such exceptions as it sees fit, but in the first trimester a woman's right to choice should not be infringed by the state. Democrats do not support elective abortions, we support choice in general. We do not pretend to have the power to discern the intent of a woman, or the outcome of her pregnancy so the law being fair must ignore that outcome whenever it is prudent to do so. Time and again the abortion issue has been used as a wedge against the Democratic party, when the reality is that the party does not support abortion, instead we support traditional family values with individual liberty being favored wherever possible. No matter what Republicans accuse us of we are the ones who 1) support adoption through providing adoption incentives, 2) while allowing a woman to choose whenever possible. The Republican party on the other hand seems to consistently say, "who cares about the rights of the woman, if she doesn't want to have the baby, who gives a damn, she isn't free to decide to do with her body what she wants, she will do as we tell her, we don't need to bother to offer her incentives to make the right choice when we can force her to make the right choice." This is where the difference is between Democrats and Republicans. It isn't in who favors abortion and who opposes abortion. It is the difference between those who love individual liberty and those who cast their votes with the single object of forcing others to do their will.
But ignoring the issues, we must distill from the issues the values of the Democratic Party. What is it we value the most as a Party? Liberty, and individual choice, responsibility and accountability for without liberty there is no choice, and without choice there is no responsibility and without responsibility there can be no accountability. Relative to abortion, this is without liberty, there can be no right to have an abortion, without the right to an abortion no choice can be made, if there is no freedom of choice there can be no personal responsibility for the choice which was made was not a personal choice, and therefore the person was not responsibility for making the choice. If the person was not responsibility for making the choice the person cannot be accountable. An extreme example, if a person is required to have an abortion by the Chinese government, there was no liberty, therefore there was no choice, and if there was no choice the person wasn't responsibility for the abortion, and if the person wasn't responsibility for the abortion the person isn't accountable for the abortion. To proscribe abortion the state takes away the accountability of the person, and therefore takes away their responsibility to make that choice, and when they do so they take away their right to choose, and by that they deprive the person of their liberty. For liberty is in choice, not in thought. So ideologically speaking Democrats are the exact opposite of Republicans. At one time the roles were reversed and the Republicans were in favor of individual liberty, and smaller government, and less taxes, etc but in today's climate it favors more government control over schools, abortion, same-sex marriage, right to die, etc.
This is a sad day for the Republican party because the principles of the party are lost in the haze of the platform of the party which is inconsistent with the principles it has previously adhered to. Now, the platform seems to mean more than the principles and this will cause it problems. Why did President Bush first oppose the Democratic sponsored Department of Homeland Security but flip-flopped (as he liked to accuse Kerry of doing) on this issue when he realized that supporting it would be favorable to his position as President. It seems that President Bush has succeeded in keeping the fact that he isn't the one responsible for DHS secret, but that it is the Democrats who are responsible for that. Interesting.
Democrats oppose abortion. Democrats support choice. That's the difference between the parties on abortion. But ignoring such wedge issues let's focus on other lesser known issues if you will. I would be interested in seeing the reason Pale Rider has for the inconsistent position of the Republican party.