Women Voters Favor President Bush Over John Kerry on Abortion, Poll Shows

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Oct 25, 2004   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Women Voters Favor President Bush Over John Kerry on Abortion, Poll Shows Email this article
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
October 25, 2004

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — A new poll shows President Bush with a slight lead with women voters nationwide, in part because Senator John Kerry fares so poorly with women for whom abortion is a top priority.

A poll conducted by comScore Networks shows Bush with a narrow 1.7% lead among women voters nationwide, 47.6 to 45.9 percent.

But when it comes to the issue of abortion, women overwhelmingly support the president.

About 5 percent of women selected abortion as one of their top issues they are evaluating when it comes to their vote for president. Of those five percent, women voters back Bush over Kerry by a 67.5 percent to 27.6 percent margin.

The abortion issue also helps President Bush among women in key battleground states.

In Florida, 4.1 percent of women picked abortion as a top five issue and, of those, 71.4 percent give their support to Bush compared to just 28.6 percent backing Kerry.

In Ohio, Bush leads Kerry 63.6 to 31.8 percent of the 5.2 percent of women who are basing their votes on the abortion issue.

Some 4.1 percent of women voters in Pennsylvania vote based on abortion and a whopping 92.9 percent favor the president while only 7.1% back Kerry.

In the three key states, Bush has an overall lead of 73.7 to 24.6 percent on the issue of abortion among women voters who name it as a priority.

Looking at the breakdown between married women and single women, 5.6 percent of married women name abortion as a top concern and Bush leads among them by a 84 to 13.2 margin.

The only area where the abortion issue does not favor Bush among women is when single women are polled. Then, Kerry holds a small 50.5 to 41.2 percent lead over Bush on the 4.4 percent of single women who named abortion as a Key issue.

Leading abortion advocacy groups are hoping to support Kerry’s candidacy by driving more women to the polls. They have spent millions of dollars on television advertisements featuring Hollywood celebrity Helen Hunt appealing to women to vote.

However, if this poll is any indication, they may be turning out more pro-life women who have chosen to back the president’s re-election bid.

The comScore poll surveyed 2,379 registered women voters nationwide between October 16 and October 20, 2004. The poll has a margin of error of +/- 3.0%. The full results of the survey are available in PDF format by visiting
https://www.comscore.com/election.