I don’t “get” liberalism. For the last 40 years, I thought I had a pretty good handle on the concept—in my high school yearbook, there’s even a photo of me holding up one end of a red-white-and-blue “Mondale-Ferraro” yard sign.

Not anymore.

Things got muddled when liberals—and others who support women’s reproductive rights—pushed back against the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization and the overturning of Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey not just with indignation and anger but also with public opinion polls.

These snapshots of public opinion show us what we already know to be true: America is a pro-choice country, with a few caveats.

But pushing the majority's will is not how liberalism is supposed to work.

Indeed, Americans don’t like abortion, and so we’re comfortable with restricting it six ways from Sunday. But, at the end of the day, the majority of Americans support a woman’s right to do as she sees fit with her body.

This was true before the Dobbs decision. In April, an ABC NEWS/Washington Post poll found that 70 percent of Americans believed the decision should be left to the woman and her doctor and 58 percent believed abortion should be legal in all or most cases.

And it is confirmed after the decision. A CBS News/You Gov poll taken late last week found that 59 percent of Americans disapproved of the ruling in the Dobbs case while only 41 percent of Americans approved. Those who disliked included more than two-thirds of women.

It’s not the poll findings that bother me. I’m pro-choice, even though I support restrictions—including parental notification laws, waiting periods, and even requirements that women must listen to the heartbeat of the fetus they’re about to abort. If you have a law intended to make getting an abortion as difficult as possible, while still preserving a woman’s right to get one, count me in.