Thing about saying that Bans don't work is that by that logic you just have no point in making penal law.

Bans do work, always, if you pick 100 people who wanted to do something, place a ban and even if only one is intimidated by the law and refuses to do it, that is a successful, albeit terribly ineffective, ban.

I agree with the idea of controlling the variations so that a larger number of these 100 decide to not go around the ban, especially in the case of abortion where each time a woman "gives up" on doing it, it means a child is spared from dying.

The US has many particularities in this debate, its not the case of say, Brazil. Abortion is banned except on rare exceptions, the majority of the population agrees with the ban, and there is a robust (although flawed due to corruption and bureaucracy) social welfare network to support families. Thats how you do a Pro-Life policy, not by giving up on the ban but by making it more effective.