Rudy Giuliani Says GOP Voters Shouldn’t Abandon Him Over Abortion 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
June 26, 2007
Virginia Beach, VA (LifeNews.com) — Pro-abortion Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani continued his efforts to reach out to primary voters who may be inclined to support other candidates because of his position. He told an audience at Regent University that the issue of terrorism is the most important single issue in the campaign.
Giuliani gave a 30 minute speech Tuesday at the conservative Christian university and never mentioned abortion directly or how he is out of step with most Republican voters, who are pro-life.
But he did appear to acknowledge the divide between his views and those of GOP voters he needs to capture the party’s nomination.
"Don’t expect you’re going to agree with me on everything because that would be unrealistic. I don’t agree with myself on everything," he said, using a self-deprecating tactic he’s employed before.
"But if you agree with me about enough things, and you think I have the ability to lead then maybe I’m the person you can support," he added.
He urged pro-life voters to look beyond their differences with him over abortion and appeared to say that the destruction of more than 1.2 million unborn children annually was not the top issue facing Americans.
"It’s not about one issue, it’s about many issues," he said, according to a transcript of his speech. "If there is one issue that dominates … is the fact that Islamic terrorists are planning to kill us. They have succeeded in doing it and they want to do it again."
After the speech, Giuliani talked with reporters about how he approached abortion in it. He told Reuters that he did not purposefully avoid the issue of abortion.
But Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, who has said he couldn’t vote for Giuliani in the primary, told Reuters that pro-life voters could work together to stop the former New York mayor from getting the party’s nod.
"Social conservatives cannot elect a president but they certainly can prevent one from being elected," he said.
