Posted on 06/28/2007 4:08:43 PM PDT by wagglebee
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A new poll shows that an overwhelming majority of Republican voters are still strongly pro-life on the issue of abortion and see it as a reason for being a member of the party. The poll also found a sizable number of Republicans who say they would not likely vote for a pro-abortion Republican candidate.
The Republican-leaning Fabrizio-Mclaughlin polling firm surveyed 2000 self-identified GOP voters nationwide from May 28 to June 3.
The poll found that GOP voters are becoming more conservative with those using that label to identify themselves moving up to 71 percent form 55 percent. Moderates dropped 10 percent to 21 percent of all GOPers and liberal Republicans make up only four percent of the party.
When it comes to their views directly on the issue, the survey found 28 percent of Republicans say abortion should be illegal under any circumstances. Only 16 percent of GOP voters say abortion should always be legal.
Another 52 percent of Republican voters say abortion should only be allowed in "certain circumstances," although the poll didn't say what situations are included in the vague question.
Typically a sizable portion of those in the middle category favor keeping abortions legal in cases of rape or incest or to save the life of the mother -- which constitute less than two percent of all abortions, according to the pro-abortion Alan Guttmacher Institute.
As a result, about 80 percent of Republican voters want all abortions to be illegal or abortions to be legal in a rare handful of cases.
Another question in the poll asked the GOP voters to identify themselves as "pro-life" or "pro-choice," and 61 percent of Republicans say they are pro-life while just 34 percent said they're not.
The poll also found that a large block of 35 percent of Republicans would be unlikely to vote for a presidential candidate who agreed with them on other issues but disagreed with them on abortion.
The result is very significant for former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, who is the top pro-abortion candidate seeking the GOP nod.
The survey shows that more than one-third of Republican voters won't consider him for president, which severely limits his ability to capture the nomination. Should he win the nod for the general election, the poll makes it appear he could have difficulty winning because he would lose such a substantial part of the Republican base.
When looking at why members of the party are Republicans, the abortion issue plays a strong role.
Some 7 percent of Republicans say they are members of the GOP specifically because of its pro-life stance on abortion.
But another 26 percent cite the party's conservative views, 22 percent say they have similar beliefs as the party, 13 percent cite moral or religious issues, and 19 percent said they were raised Republican or favor candidates of the party.
While not directly related to abortion, pro-life views play a role in each of the categories.
When asked what issue best defines the Republican Party, abortion came in third with 8 percent saying it primarily separates the GOP from the Democratic Party. Another 11 percent cited family values or moral issues, which can include abortion.
Sorry, I meant to ping you to this as well.
It is more than just the abortion issue itself. It’s also the lack of character of the person who accepts the murder of children. I cannot vote for someone that barbaric.
Exactly! ANYONE who is not even troubled by the FACT that over 3500 infants are slaughtered EVERY DAY in the United States lacks the moral authority to be elected to anything.
Please Freepmail me if you want on or off my Pro-Life Ping List.
The really sad part is, there is a substantial percentage of RINOs that would gladly accept a 'Beast presidency if it meant breaking the stranglehold the social conservatives have over the party and its nomination.
All they have to do is nominate someone who holds the Republican coalition together (coughFRedcoughThompsoncough), and the GOP is a winner against a candidate that 47% of the country will not vote for under any circumstances. Yet, they are completely hellbent on splitting the party in two, then blaming socons - when they knew what would happen all along.
What say you, shrinkermd? Let's say by some miracle, Duncan Hunter gets the GOP nomination and faces the 'Beast in the general - who do you vote for?
If you say the Beast or third party, you have proven my point.
If you say Hunter, then why not work for the most electable conservative in the primary instead of trying to stuff a party-wrecking RINO liberal down our throats?
That said, Rudy is an idiot if he thinks he can (or should) win the nomination while giving the finger to one of the party's core constituencies. He wouldn't expectto win the nomination if he went to all his campaign stops wearing an "Eat the Rich" T-shirt, so why's he expect to shaft us and gwet away with it?
When people tell me it’s just one issue, I tell them it’s approximately 46 million issues, because that’s how many preborn babies were murdered since Roe.
I'll second that question, and add this:
The Rudy boosters can talk all they want about single issue this and single issue that, but it's not about a single issue, it's about several issues that Giuliani is not just on the wrong side of, but ardently so. The guy is only a conse3rvative by the measure of NYC politics, and in case you haven't noticed, very little of this country is NYC...and Hillary's at least as popular in NYC as she is.
Rudy will not hold currently-red battleground states. He will not take blue states away from Hillary. To believe he will is a fantasy that depends on believing that "single-issue" libs will vote GOP, or believing that Hillary will be tanked solely by her negatives, which means we don't need Rudy to be the nominee to get it done.
You have asked a hypothetical that will not happen. Duncan Hunter is so far down in the polls it would require divine intervention for him to prevail in any primary state.
Unfortunately, we are just short of 50 MILLION abortions since 1973.
http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/facts/abortionstats.html
And I don’t think these figures don’t take into account the number of abortion deaths from RU-486.
You want to hear the biggest hypothetical in the whole race? That would be Rooty Toot getting the nomination and winning.
Rooty Toot was two scared to run against Hitlery the two times he had a chance. And you want to talk about SINGLE ISSUE candidates, how about, “I was mayor on 9/11” which sounds an awful lot like “I was in Vietnam.”
NO major political party has EVER nominated a presidential candidate who they didn’t believe could even carry his own state. Why should we do it now?
It’s worse than I thought - approximately 50 million “issues” BABIES - reasons to vote pro-LIFE!
Guess what, Rooty Toot won’t be the nominee.
Nice dodge. I think you just told us you're supporting Giuliani because he's a lib. Go ahead and correct me if I'm wrong, but don't expect me too accept dodges as if they're straight talk.
“its approximately 46 million issues”
Excellent points, Sun.
This country seems to be more upset about Vick’s cruelty to dogs than the heinous murder of thousands of babies on a daily basis.
Our beloved country is badly broken.
“This country seems to be more upset about Vicks cruelty to dogs than the heinous murder of thousands of babies on a daily basis.
Our beloved country is badly broken.”
Sadly, you are correct. I pray every day for an end to abortion.
Kirk, for the most part, used "conservative" as an adjective rather than a noun. Something again, you would not be familiar with.
Kirk also stated if believed your positions were conservative then you were one.
Only the single issue, litmus test types would disagree with his broad definition.
Finally, I do not worry about hypotheticals that don't happen. Again, I don't worry about the sun rising tomorrow or Hunter gaining the nomination because both events are so rare as to be impossible.
Abort Guiliani. He will understand what it means to be unwanted.
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