A new poll shows that Catholic voters are closely divided on the presidential race between Donald Trump and pro-abortion Hillary Clinton.
The Pew Research Center on Religion and Public Life found that white Catholics support Trump, who calls himself pro-life, by a narrow margin; but Hispanic Catholics overwhelmingly support Clinton, who is radically pro-abortion. Overall, Catholic voters are supporting Clinton by a narrow margin, according to the June poll results.
The Catholic Herald reports more about the poll:
According to the poll, 77 percent of Hispanic Catholics are backing Clinton while 16 per cent support Trump, with five percent either not sure or not saying.
White Catholics, meanwhile, shade toward Trump by a 50 percent – 46 per cent margin, according to Pew, with four percent undecided.
Among all Catholics, the edge goes to Clinton, 56-39, with 5 percent undecided or not knowing who to back.
In the overall poll, according to Pew, Clinton leads Trump 51 percent – 42 percent.
Pew estimates that Catholics make up 20 per cent of the electorate this year, 13 percent being white, five per cent being Hispanic, and two percent being “other.”
The close divide among Catholics is worth noting in relation to the abortion issue. The Catholic Church takes a strong position against abortion, but the new poll shows that voting Catholics are narrowly supporting the candidate who is being labeled the most radically pro-abortion presidential candidate in U.S. history.
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Clinton’s extreme position on abortion is clear. At a campaign event in August, she compared pro-lifers to terrorists. Then, during a September interview on CBS, Clinton revealed that she wouldn’t support a federal limit on abortion “at any state of pregnancy” in the name of a “woman’s right to choose.”
The new poll found that support for Clinton or Trump varies among religious groups in the U.S.
Among white evangelical Protestants, the Pew poll found strong support of Trump among 75 percent of voters. Mainline Protestants also support Trump over Clinton, though more narrowly at 50 percent to 39 percent. Meanwhile, Black Protestants are strongly backing Clinton at 89 percent, Pew found.
In comparison, 66 percent of religiously unaffiliated voters said they plan to vote for Clinton, according to Pew.
Interestingly, a number of voters said they consider their vote to be an action against the opposing candidate, rather than for the candidate they plan to vote for. According to the report:
One phenomenon examined in the Pew poll was whether a respondent’s choice more closely represented a vote for the candidate or a vote against the opposing candidate. Among the religiously unaffiliated, for example, more of them who back Clinton said it was a vote against Trump, and more of them who back Trump called it a vote against Clinton.
Only Clinton-backing Protestants say their vote is more for Clinton than one against Trump, 19 per cent – 18 per cent, and only because black Protestants do so by a 52 per cent – 34 per cent margin — and that margin pales next to the 72 per cent pro-Obama support given in 2012.
