Republican Voters in Iowa Say Abortion a Top Issue; Trust Huckabee, Romney
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
December 20, 2007
Des Moines, IA (LifeNews.com) — As the Iowa caucus approaches, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds Republican voters there say abortion is one of the top issues they will use to determine their vote. The poll also showed that Republican voters trust Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney the most to handle abortion issues as president.
Asked to name the "single most important issue in your choice for the Republican candidate for president," 9 percent of Republican voters cited abortion.
That placed abortion fourth among nineteen issues cited by GOP voters as their most important concern.
Asked to name the second-most important issue in determining the vote, another 6 percent of GOP voters cited abortion.
Combining the answers to the top two key issues, abortion again came in fourth, cited by 15 percent of all Republicans as the most or second-most important.
With so many Republican voters basing their opinion about the candidates on abortion, the Post-ABC survey asked voters to pick one of the GOP candidates as the best to handle it as president.
The results largely mirror how Republican candidates are performing in the polls overall in Iowa.
Some 38 percent of Iowa Republicans name Mike Huckabee as the candidate they trust the most to handle abortion issues as president, while Mitt Romney enjoyed the support of 25 percent.
From there, the divide is huge as Fred Thompson places third with 10 percent and no other Republican candidate comes in double digits. Just five percent of GOP voters in Iowa trust Rudy Giuliani, the only pro-abortion candidate in the race.
The trend shows a significant increase for Huckabee as his surge in the leading primary states continues.
As the survey has shown before, a large majority of Iowa Republicans take a pro-life position on abortion.
The poll found 74 percent want abortions illegal in either all cases (25 percent) or most cases (49 percent). Just 23 percent of GOP voters in Iowa back abortions, with only 7 percent saying it should always be legal and 16 percent saying it should be legal most of the time.
The survey’s abortion poll shows consistent results over time as the same question last month showed a 75-23 percent split against abortion among Republican voters.
