by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
February 3, 2005
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A new poll conducted by researchers
at the University of Akron shows that the abortion issue helped President
Bush make considerable gains in the 2004 elections among Catholics and
Hispanics. The poll also finds Bush improving with most religious groups
while those who attend church infrequently backed John Kerry.
According
to the survey, some 63 percent of Hispanic Protestants supported Bush
in 2004 compared with just 32 percent in 2000. Meanwhile, Catholics
gave Bush a 53 to 47 percent advantage over the Massachusetts senator,
also an increase over Bush's 2000 numbers.
Longtime Democrat voting blocs, both groups voted for the president in part because of social issues like abortion, the poll showed.
"[S]ocial issue priorities were most important to Bush's religious constituencies," the researchers wrote. "A majority of the top four Bush constituencies regarded social issues as very important to their vote."
Raimundo Rojas, the Hispanic outreach coordinator for the National Right to Life Committee, told LifeNews.com that the poll's findings confirm Bush's gains among Hispanic voters were due to his pro-life views.
"President Bush made big gains among Latino voters, specially in the key states of New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado and Arizona, and assured his victory in those states," Rojas said.
Rojas said Bush made better inroads with Latino voters because "Hispanics weren't listening to the propaganda or believing the pro-abortion spin."
"Post-election Democratic squabbling over the specific percentage of the Hispanic vote that went for Bush seems to be more important to them than analyzing why so many Hispanics voted for President Bush," Rojas explained.
"You will never win Latinos over on the issue of abortion. It goes against our nature our culture and our national mores," Rojas told LifeNews.com.
The poll also shows the religious split in the United States with 69 percent of liberal or mainline Christians backing Kerry and 72 percent of evangelical or traditionalist Christians supporting Bush.
The University of Akron conducted the phone survey of 2,730, which was sponsored in part by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.
Related web sites:See the poll results at http://www.uakron.edu/bliss/research.php
