Surrendering convictions

As the abortion debate has raged it has been interesting to note some of the shifts in how the argument is framed. Many opponents have gone from "it's murder" to "we will stop it where we can except in cases of..."
Personally, and this will doubtless earn me many enemies, I fail to see the logic or justification for exceptions. Murder is murder. However, those proponents who justify the exception have already moved from their alleged "conviction" which could easily be interpolated to indicate a preference as opposed to a conviction. If you believe abortion = murder then how can you justify murder in certain conditions? This is not a political statement, this is a moral statement.
What I mean is if you believe abortion is murder and claim that as a conviction then you have made a statement that must form part of the foundation of your character. Your belief does not change according to political popularity and/or acceptability, legal opinions, scholastic opinions, etc. It is part of who you are. To then say "It is murder, but we will accept it in the following cases" is hypocrisy of the worst sort. It is the very situation ethics that many of those same people would decry the horribleness of.
At the same time, way back when I first became aware of the debate, I remember one tact many abortion opponents adopted was saying, "Where will it stop? How late can you go? If we continue to allow abortion, at some point there will be talk of euthansia. And at some point that will become involuntary."
Suddenly seems they were prophetic, doesn't it? At this point, it is just a debate. At some point...it won't be.
Personally, I lay the blame at the feet of the people who claimed to have a conviction but acted as if they had a preference. If you believe something, truly believe it, then you can't change your stance in order to be more acceptable. You can't shift to gain political points. You hold the line, even if you are losing the fight. Right does not become "less right", compromise is just that...you lose a great deal, perhaps all moral authority if you are willing to compromise what you claim to believe.
When you argue against people who believe right is determined by changing public opinion and you demonstrate a willingness to shift your argument then you have no right to complain when public opinion shifts again and previously unthinkable things become standard.
Want an example? Well...Oregon does have legal assisted suicide. From offense punishable with murder charge to perfectly acceptable practice in less than a decade.
The point of all this is simple. If you believe something completely and it is a conviction, not a preference, vote that way. Don't vote the lesser of 2 evils, don't vote candidate b because you are voting against candidate a, not for candidate b, etc. Vote your convictions and refuse to back off them for any reason.
My name, should you care to put it on your ballot, is...