Last week, the Knights of Columbus and the Marist Institute for Public Opinion jointly published two polls that should give Catholics a bit of much-needed encouragement about the future of American politics. One of them was about abortion. It found that 75 per cent of Americans favoured significant restrictions on the availability of abortion – in varying degrees, ranging from permitting it only in the first trimester to a total ban. A mere 15 per cent would allow abortion “at any time during the pregnancy”.