Please provide a list of Democrats that defected to the Republican party over this issue, because I personally am only aware of only one. That sounds like an anomaly rather than a pattern, Democrats propagate this lie ad nauseum, but it is a lie. The past context of the Republican Party is also irrelevant in now that it is taking a largely center-right disposition because it is courting those voters that the Dems and the Libertarian Party are disinterested in them - I doubt this pattern will change drastically because it is a winning strategy. The Republican Party of _now_ is basically under new management, with new ideas, and is far more tolerant than say twenty years ago. Thinking that there is some tie in is like drawing a line from slavery to the Democratic party and not paying attention to the 100+years since.
As far as who would be what now issues, we can play that game forever. It's just disingenuous to some degree to assert we'd have any freaking clue what they'd be into in a modern context. I prefer to instead simply respect their values in the context of their time, and worry about my own.