Well, that was painful. What with the cross talk, interruptions, insults, sneers and overly rehearsed zingers, the vice-presidential debate on Tuesday surely bewildered more voters than it enlightened. There was one area, though, in which both Senator Tim Kaine and Gov. Mike Pence were crystal-clear and decidedly different: abortion rights.

Granted, it took long enough. An hour and 22 frustrating minutes dragged by before anyone seemed to remember women. And when abortion came up, it was not because the moderator, Elaine Quijano, posed a direct question but because she invited the candidates to talk about their faith. Still, now we know: Mr. Kaine, despite his Catholicism, and his personal identification as “pro-life,” supports abortion rights, as does Hillary Clinton. Mr. Pence, who calls himself an “evangelical Catholic,” wants to ban abortion, as does Donald J. Trump.

The way each man framed his position was different, too — and telling.

The Republican Party often describes itself as a big tent with room for a range of views on abortion rights, same-sex marriage and other gender-related issues, unlike those rigid, narrow-minded, politically correct Democrats. Indeed, once upon a time there were pro-choice Republican politicians — think of Nelson Rockefeller and Olympia Snowe — but that was before the party became a subsidiary of the Christian right. Last year only three Republicans in Congress voted against defunding Planned Parenthood.

By choosing Mr. Pence, an energetic and enthusiastic leader of the movement to make abortion a crime, Mr. Trump aligned himself with the dominant views of his party, whose platform has long called for banning abortion, and reassured the Christian conservative base that, whatever his past views, he is 100 percent with them today.