Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Rudy Giuliani is hoping to dispel concerns about his pro-abortion position by promoting adoption, but a leading pro-life advocate says his overture won't have the intended effect. Giuliani has been in trouble with Republicans and conservatives in the polls in recent weeks despite language saying he hates abortions and promises to appoint judges who practice judicial restraint.

Promoting adoption appears to be his latest tactic to keep enough pro-life voters in his camp to wrestle the nomination away from candidates who side with the pro-life community.

Yesterday, Giuliani unveiled a his new "12 Commitments to the American People" and said he would work to increase adoptions and decrease abortions.

"We need to take advantage of the common ground in America to reduce abortions by increasing adoptions and assuring that individual choice is well informed," the former New York City mayor says. "We need to measure our progress toward these goals. We need to reduce the high costs of adoption."

Giuliani underscored his support for adoption with a recent visit last week to the Children’s Home Society, an adoption agency.

But Tony Perkins, the head of the Family Research Council calls the comments a ploy "to humor pro-lifers."

"In the past, Giuliani's personal efforts to increase adoptions included donations to Planned Parenthood, an organization which, last year, could not report a single adoption referral," Perkins told LifeNews.com. "Will he propose to entrust--not just his own funds--but U.S. taxpayer funds to Planned Parenthood in hopes that they will lead this new adoption initiative?"

Perkins says Giuliani has the wrong approach to stopping abortion, even though adoption is a positive alternative to it.

"The first step in reducing abortions is outlawing it," he said. "The second is slashing the government funding for its biggest providers."

"Those ideas should be on any candidate's top 12 list. As we have seen, talking about pro-life policy is one thing--implementing it is quite another," Perkins concluded.