There has been a recent (at least, in the news) fight on the left over abortion and if you have to be pro-choice to be part of the Democratic party. One side says you absolutely have to be, the other says that anti-abortion voices have to be included in order to win House seats and state legislations in Conservative states/districts, in order to then push pro-choice positions.
I find both sides have compelling arguments, unfortunately. I guess it’s the old “does the end justify the means” argument.
There’s more sides than just that. For example, there’s anti-abortion leftists whose goal is to reduce the number of abortions, which they see as completely unrelated to the availability of abortions. To this group, Obama provided a clear leadership example–he did not do anything (that I know of) to reduce the availability of abortions, but his policies successfully reduced the number of abortions to levels lower than they were before Roe v Wade. To your standard “I want to throw doctors and women in jail” anti-abortion type, Obama was as bad as any other recent Democratic president. To your “I just want to stop abortions” anti-abortion type, Obama is a hero/saint/example to us all.
Admittedly this anti-abortion faction is a small group without easy access to bumper sticker technology.
That’s the problem right there. These moderate groups exist, but good luck finding out about them, much less making them the face of the Democratic party.