STEPHANIE SLADE: Why I Am A Pro-Life Libertarian.

There’s a belief on the American left that says it’s impossible to be both a principled libertarian and a principled pro-lifer—that the two positions are somehow intellectually incompatible. It’s been popping up more often lately as liberal writers look for ways to criticize Sen. Rand Paul, as in this Salon piece, where the author says Paul and his father “have always played fast and loose with their libertarian principles when it comes to reproductive health.”

The unstated premise on which that statement relies is that No True Libertarian could also be against abortion. But in reality, it’s not the case that all libertarians believe women should have the right to terminate a pregnancy. More to the point, it’s flatly incorrect to suggest that opposition to legal abortion is irreconcilable with the belief system that places a person in the libertarian camp.

What is true is that most libertarians—at least historically—have held pro-choice views. In their 2012 book The Libertarian Vote, David Boaz, David Kirby, and (former Reason Foundation polling director) Emily Ekins looked at the data and confirmed as much. “According to our analysis of 2008 [American National Election Study] data, 62 percent of libertarians are pro-choice versus 37 percent pro-life, similar to percentages of the national population,” they wrote. Stated otherwise, as recently as 2008, a six-in-ten majority of libertarians thought women should be able to legally get an abortion. . . . Recall as well that the authors of The Libertarian Vote found more than a third of libertarians opposing abortion. There’s even reason to suspect that number might be on the rise. Although millennials are routinely painted as socially liberal, a 2014 Pew Research study found that people 18 to 29 are actually more likely than those 30 to 64 to say the practice should be illegal. A majority of Hispanics, the fastest-growing demographic in the country, also said it should be banned.

Libertarians are on both sides of the issue.