Hillary Clinton Starts Week on Women’s Issues by Promoting Abortion 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
October 15, 2007
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Hillary Clinton began a week devoted to women’s issues on Monday but she used her first policy speech to bash President Bush on the issue of abortion. Clinton says she has a lead in the Democratic race for president because of the backing of women but she may find it more difficult, one poll shows, to attract women next year.
Clinton started her week devoted to women with an appearance on ABC’s "The View" and plans to deliver a policy address in New Hampshire on Tuesday.
She also had an appearance with a New York activist group Monday and, criticized President Bush on abortion by saying he had appointed judges to the Supreme Court who had limited abortion rights.
The high court, in April, found that the nation’s ban on partial-birth abortions, which Bush signed into law, was constitutional. The ban enjoyed the support of anywhere from 60-80 percent of Americans depending on the poll.
Clinton told the television program that she’s happy some voters support her because she is the only woman in the race but wants to be supported because she is the candidate.
Her campaign released a memo Monday from senior strategist Mark Penn saying that female voters have propelled Clinton to the lead on the Democratic side.
"She enjoys her deepest support among working and middle class women—people who care most about issues like health care and child care, issues that Hillary has worked on throughout her life in public service," Penn wrote.
However, an August poll found women don’t necessarily support her and that her pro-abortion views are a turnoff.
The respected Polling Company firm conducted a survey with 600 women voters of both parties from August 15-20.
The poll revealed that Hillary’s positions on abortion were at odds with a majority of American women.
Some 64 percent of women voters would be less likely to vote for a presidential candidate who voted against the partial-birth abortion ban — a measure Clinton voted against on four occasions.
Sixty-eight percent of women voters are less likely to vote for a presidential candidate who supports taxpayer-funded abortion — something Hillary Clinton adamantly supports.
And 73 percent of those polled said they would be less likely to vote for a presidential candidate who voted against a law that would have made it a criminal act for an adult to take a girl younger than 18 years of age across state lines to get an abortion without her parents’ knowledge.
Clinton twice voted against a Congressional bill to do just that.
“Clinton needs women voters to win, yet her extreme abortion policies remain out of step with the majority of American women," Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of the Susan B. Anthony List, told LifeNews.com about the poll.
"The feminist lobby may support her radical positions, but in the real and bigger world of women voters, Clinton’s extremism fails to translate into votes. Hillary needs more in common with women voters than anatomy," Dannenfelser added.
The poll also found that women voters are ready for a woman candidate for president — even if Hillary Clinton isn’t the right woman for the job.
More women than not could not vote for Hillary Clinton, the Polling Company survey found.
About 30 percent of the women polled would vote for a woman in the 2008 election if given another female choice besides Clinton. Another 16 percent said they would back a woman but not until a future presidential election and seven percent said it would be more than one election before they would consider a female candidate.
Just 40 percent of those polled said they would consider voting for Clinton, though they didn’t commit to voting for her.
“Considering how miserably Clinton does among male voters, she should be concerned that the ‘sisterhood’ is not rallying to her side either,” said Dannenfelser. “Women may be ready to vote for a female president, but Hillary Clinton doesn’t fit the bill."
