Planned Parenthood Claims McCain’s Pro-Life Abortion Views Lose Women
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
April 10, 2008
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — A representative of the political action committee for the nation’s largest abortion business contends eventual Republican presidential nominee will turn off women voters because of his pro-life views. However, polling data and past performance suggests otherwise.
"When women voters find out that John McCain opposes Roe v. Wade and sex education and affordable birth control, then they stop supporting him," Planned Parenthood’s Samantha Smoot said.
Smoot told CNN, "These issues — that impact women on a very personal and important level — those are going to be taken into consideration at the voting booth.
Wendy Wright, the president of Concerned Women for America, told LifeNews.com Thursday afternoon that Smoot’s assessment of women voters is off the mark.
"It’s true that women take abortion very personally. They suffer the consequences of abortion in their bodies, minds and souls," she said. "That’s one reason why most women are pro-life, and vote accordingly."
Wright also said the abortion business "does not speak on behalf of all, or even most, women."
"It is spending millions of dollars to influence the upcoming election, an election that could have an impact on how much money it receives from the government," she explained. "Comments from Planned Parenthood employees should be recognized as attempts to keep our tax dollars flowing into its bulging coffers."
A recent poll of women voters substantiates Wright’s perspective.
An August 2007 Polling Company survey of women on abortion issues finds them less likely to support candidates like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton who oppose even the most modest limits on abortion.
Some 64 percent of women voters would be less likely to vote for a presidential candidate who voted against the partial-birth abortion ban. Another 68 percent of women voters are less likely to vote for a presidential candidate who supports taxpayer-funded abortion.
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.
In addition, post-election polling after the 2004 presidential elections found President Bush’s pro-life stance gave him an edge over pro-abortion Sen. John Kerry.
A 2004 Wirthlin Worldwide post-election poll found that 39 percent of voters said abortion affected the way they voted for president. Twenty-four percent of voters cast their ballots for President Bush while 15% voted for Kerry, giving Bush a 9 percent advantage on the issue of abortion.
Eight percent of voters in the Wirthlin poll indicated abortion was the single "most important" issue affecting their votes and Bush won among those voters by a six to two percent margin, leading Kerry by four percentage points among the most intense abortion voters.
