Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Barack Obama takes an absolutist position in favor of abortion while presidential candidate John McCain is pro-life. But what would happen if the roles were reversed? Would voters change their position about their favorite candidate or stay with him? A new Fox News poll explores that what if question.

In the new survey, conducted by the Opinion Dynamics polling firm, Obama supporters were asked if they would still vote for Obama if he became pro-life. McCain voters were asked if they would support Obama if McCain became pro-abortion.

The poll found few voters would abandon Obama than McCain -- making it appear pro-life voters are more concerned McCain stays pro-life than pro-abortion voters are concerned Obama stays pro-abortion.

Just 19 percent of Obama backers would not vote for him if he changed his abortion stance while 23 percent of McCain supporters would not support him if he flip-flopped on abortion.

Fox News asked a follow-up question about what voters would do if the candidates reversed their positions and Obama would name a justice like to overturn Roe like Antonin Scalia and McCain would appoint pro-abortion judges like Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Again, pro-life voters appeared more concerned than their pro-abortion counterparts with just 20 percent saying they would opposed Obama under the implausible scenario and 27 percent abandoning McCain.

That difference in intensity was show in another question in the survey asking voters to name the most important issue they're considering this election.

Abortion came in ninth -- ahead of unnamed issues like the environment, crime, or social security -- with three percent of voters saying it is the number one issue.

Breaking down that statistic further, six percent of Republicans named abortion their number one issue while just one percent of Democrats said the same thing.

With Republicans tending to be pro-life and supporting McCain and Democrats trending pro-abortion and backing Obama, it appears pro-life voters are six times more likely to say abortion is their top issue than pro-abortion voters.

That mirrors exit polling data following previous presidential elections showing that voters who made their decision based on abortion favored the pro-life presidential candidate by wide margins.

 

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