Feminist Leader Urges Women to Vote For Abortion, John Kerry for President 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
October 14, 2004
Santa Fe, NM (LifeNews.com) — At an appearance in the southwestern battleground state of New Mexico, pro-abortion feminist Gloria Steinem urged women to vote for abortion and John Kerry for president. She also compared President Bush’s pro-life record with terrorism.
About 80 women gathered at Steinem’s campaign stop for a NARAL of New Mexico breakfast. There, Steinem said that the votes of women could put John Kerry over the top in the presidential race.
"Women are the most crucial part of the electorate. If in this state, women on their own vote as much as married women, Kerry will win," Steinem said, according to an Albuquerque Journal newspaper report.
Steinem, founder of Ms. Magazine, told the audience that President Bush was the most anti-abortion president ever and that re-elected him president would put so-called "abortion rights" in jeopardy.
According to the Journal, Steinem called Bush "more dangerous to this country’s citizens than terrorists."
"This is a human right, like freedom of speech," Steinem said. "Reproductive freedom means the freedom to have children or not to have children, contraception, family planning, it means everything … There is no more important battle."
But, women apparently don’t agree with the selff-styled feminist leader.
A June 2003 poll conducted by the pro-abortion Center for the Advancement of Women found that 51% took a pro-life position opposing most or all abortions while only thirty percent said it should be generally available.
The poll also found that keeping abortion legal was the next to last most important priority for women. Fewer than half (41%) cite preserving abortion as a priority — down from 49 percent in 2001.
Polls also show that President Bush is faring better with women voters than he did in 2000 and Kerry is losing his large lead among women.
A Gallup poll released in late September shows Kerry leading Bush among women voters by a 50 to 46 percent margin. That’s down from the 15 point lead Kerry held in a similar June poll and lower than the 11 point margin Al Gore had over Bush in the 2000 election.
Also speaking at the pro-abortion event along with Steinem were New Mexico first lady Barbara Richardson and Jill Cooper Udall, wife of Rep. Tom Udall (D-NM).
