Why is the South so conservative?

[TJ in Oregon]

Another question is why has the south become more conservative in the last 40 years?

The Southern Baptists arguably even endorsed the Roe. v. Wade decision when it happened. Now it seems like the anti-abortion position dominates the south at every level. Maybe the conventional view that the right alligned toward the views of the south isn't quite correct. Maybe the south has also alligned toward the views of the right.

[TJ in Oregon]

The map above shows the abortion laws in each state prior to Roe v. Wade (from wikipedia). For some reason the key is cut off. Red is illegal, purple is legal only in case of rape, blue is legal for health reasons, green is legal only for both (blue + purple = green), and yellow is legal on demand. Heck, even Vermont had more pro-life laws than the south!

http://books.google.com/books?id=LSO5YDifWz8C&pg=PA209&vq=history+baptist+abortion&sig=KZgjPsS22v-Yl0bLPRrl6eu-Etk#v=onepage&q&f=false

On pg. 12 of this book it talks about the Southern Baptists (arguable) endorsement of Roe v. Wade. The Baptist Press printed that “Religious liberty, human equality, and justice are advanced by the Supreme Court abortion decision [Roe v. Wade].” Former President of the Southern Baptist Convention W. A. Criswell said, “I have always felt that it was only after a child was born and had a life separate from its mother that it became an individual person.”

The Southern Baptists didn’t start to really oppose abortion until 1980. I understand that not all southerners are Southern Baptists, but this has always given me the impression that the south never really was as conservative as it is today back then. I was searching for abortion polling by state for the 1970s vs. today and have been unable to find any so I am unable to quantitatively back this assertion up (at least on that issue). Perhaps there are other issues the south had moved leftward on to compensate for this, but I cannot really think of any.