Poll of Pro-Abortion NARAL Members Finds Hillary Clinton Leading Democrats

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Nov 9, 2007   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Poll of Pro-Abortion NARAL Members Finds Hillary Clinton Leading Democrats Email this article
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
November 9,
2007

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — NARAL has conducted an unscientific online poll of its membership and the results confirm some expectations but also present other surprises. According to the survey, members of the abortion advocacy group favor Hillary Clinton to get the Democratic nod for president with John Edwards and Barack Obama close behind.

All of the Democratic presidential candidates support abortion and all were included in the NARAL membership poll.

Clinton score the highest with the support of just over 30 percent of the NARAL membership — confirming other polling data showing Clinton leading the race to represent Democrats next year.

Though Barack Obama places second in most national polls, he trails behind John Edwards by a 22.4 to 20.8 margin in the NARAL survey.

That could be because former NARAL president Kate Michelman is in the Edwards camp and she’s likely spent considerable time recruiting NARAL members to back his candidacy.

In a surprisingly high fourth place finish, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, who flip-flopped on abortion a few years ago upsetting pro-life advocates who has supported him for years, received nearly 17 percent of the NARAL support. He’s not considered a candidate on par with the top three in leading primary states.

Rounding out the list of candidates, Governor Bill Richardson, and Senators Joe Biden and Christopher Dodd both finished with low single digits.

Nancy Keenan, the group’s president, included the results in an email to her membership, in which she tried to fire up the abortion advocates to get involved in the presidential race.

"Picture this: It is Election Day 2008. A pro-choice candidate wins and will be the next president of the United States," she writes. "With your help, this victory can be a reality."

"If we are to elect a pro-choice president in 2008, we must grow our pro-choice ranks, educate voters about the candidates and issues, and get out the pro-choice vote next November," she says.

To do that, she encourages every NARAL member to refer five friends to the group to be placed on their email and postal mailing lists.

While Keenan wants her members to act on her behalf, the organization doesn’t appear to be concerned about their thoughts on the presidential race. Keenan emphasized that the polling results don’t represent NARAL’s view and won’t be used as a factor in her group making an endorsement.