In the 1970's most conventional American Christians believed that abortion in some cases should be legal and safe. Most mainstream Christians supported Roe vs. Wade because they recognized that women getting "back-alley abortions" were being maimed and even killed. In the late 1970's a Catholic attorney named Phyllis Shlafly determined that one of the ways to finally unify the anti-abortion Catholic Church with the traditional American mainstream Christian Church on political matters was to make "right to life" a political issue. Prior to this, Christians weren't terribly keen to get in bed (so to speak) with the Catholic Church.