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by Steven Ertelt | WASHINGTON, DC | LIFENEWS.COM | 8/29/04 9:00 AM
Survey of Republican Delegates Shows Majority Pro-Life on Abortion 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
August 29, 2004
New York, NY (LifeNews.com) — A survey of Republican delegates to next week’s national convention shows that a strong majority are pro-life when it comes to the question of abortion.
According to an Associated Press survey of Republican delegates participating in the New York convention, some 58 percent said they were against "abortion rights" while only 15 percent backed abortion.
The percentage of Republicans opposing abortion likely would have been higher, but 27 percent of delegates did not respond to the survey.
Assuming a similar breakdown among those who did not return the AP questionnaire, approximately 79 percent of Republicans may have opposed abortion if all had answered while only 21 percent likely would have opposed it.
The Associated Press questionnaire seems to indicate that internal pre-convention poling by a pro-abortion GOP group is off base.
The Republicans for Choice political action committee released a poll last week claiming that 72 percent of Americans and 69 percent of Republicans said they "strongly agree" that the decision about an abortion should be "between a woman, her doctor and her family" and that government shouldn’t be involved.
But even nonpartisan political observers say the poll was extremely biased.
Larry Sabato, a political analyst from the University of Virginia, told CNS News the poll is a "misrepresentation of where America stands on abortion."
"They picked the strongest possible statement for the pro-choice side," Sabato said.
Previous polls have consistently shown that a majority of Republicans — and even 40 percent of Democrats a Zogby poll indicates — oppose abortion.
By taking a pro-life position, Republican presidential candidates have picked up a few percentage points in the popular vote.
A Gallup Poll Special Report published after the last presidential election entitled "Public Opinion About Abortion — An In-Depth Review" said "the abortion issue has been an advantage for Republican candidates" for all six presidential elections from 1984 to 2000 because of the nominee’s pro-life position.
According to Gallup, of the 14% of voters who said abortion was one of the most important issues in deciding their vote in the 2000 presidential election, 58% supported Bush, while only 41% voted for pro-abortion candidate Al Gore.
