Post-Election Poll: Abortion Helped Bush With Hispanics, Catholics

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A new poll conducted by researchers at the University of Akron shows that the abortion issue helped President Bush make considerable gains in the 2004 elections among Catholics and Hispanics. The poll also finds Bush improving with most religious groups while those who attend church infrequently backed John Kerry. According to the survey, some 63 percent of Hispanic Protestants supported Bush in 2004 compared with just 32 percent in 2000. Meanwhile, Catholics gave Bush a 53 to 47 percent advantage over the Massachusetts senator, also an increase over Bush's 2000 numbers. Longtime Democrat voting blocs, both groups voted for the president in part because of social issues like abortion, the poll showed. "[S]ocial issue priorities were most important to Bush's religious constituencies," the researchers wrote. "A majority of the top four Bush constituencies regarded social issues as very important to their vote." Raimundo Rojas, the Hispanic outreach coordinator for the National Right to Life Committee, told LifeNews.com that the poll's findings confirm Bush's gains among Hispanic voters were due to his pro-life views. "President Bush made big gains among Latino voters, specially in the key states of New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado and Arizona, and assured his victory in those states," Rojas said. Rojas said Bush made better inroads with Latino voters because "Hispanics weren't listening to the propaganda or believing the pro-abortion spin." Read the complete story