For decades, Democrats have tried to frame the abortion question in essentially libertarian terms, as one of opposition to government intruding on personal decisions. But by making support for taxpayer funded abortions their default position, candidates for the 2020 Democratic nomination have undermined their ability to make the small government case for abortion rights.

Libertarians themselves, it should be said, are divided on abortion. For some, the issue is straight forward: If you support limited government, you cannot support restrictions over what women try to do with their bodies. However, libertarians also believe that the primary function of government is to protect the right to life, so to those libertarians who believe an unborn child qualifies as a life, it naturally flows that they’d believe it is legitimate for government to protect that child’s life and liberty.