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A Dark Day For Pro-Abortionists

CRISIS Magazine - e-Letter

November 8, 2002

It was surprising, even to me, how large a role the issue of abortion played in deciding some key elections. According to Pro-Life Infonet (www.prolifeinfo.org), eight of the top ten Senate races in the country went to pro-life candidates, and other pro-life incumbents managed to keep their seats as well. Two-thirds of the newly elected House officials are also pro-life.

Compare this to the results of candidates sponsored by EMILY's List -- a veritable who's who of pro-abortion politicians -- who lost 17 of the 22 candidates they sponsored. It wasn't a good year to be pro-choice.

Exit-polls conducted by sources such as Fox News confirmed that many voters had abortion on their minds when they went to the polls -- and the overwhelming majority of those voters were pro-life.

Case in point: In Missouri, 17 percent of voters said abortion was their number one concern, second only to the economy (21 percent), in voting for a senator. Of those 17 percent, 80 percent voted for pro-life candidate Jim Talent over incumbent pro-choice Senator Jean Carnahan. Some credit this important vote to Talent's upset win; the legislative director of National Right to Life said, "It would certainly be fair to say Sen. Carnahan was defeated on the pro-life issue."

Other states saw similar results. Fourteen percent of Minnesota voters said abortion was their top concern, the third-highest single issue named. Nine percent of the voters in Georgia felt the same way. Of these voters, the vast majority voted for pro-life candidates -- candidates that went on to big wins.

Hawaii and Nevada had crucial wins for life, too. Hawaii's previous governor was pushing a bill that would make them the second state to legalize assisted suicide. Instead, voters chose his challenger, Laura Lingle, who has promised to veto any such bill in the future. Voters in Nevada also said a decisive "no" to homosexual marriages, another win for the culture of life.

Catholics in particular made a strong showing at the polls. In Florida, 26% of the voters were Catholic, the highest single denomination voting. Many other key states in this election saw huge voter turnout from Catholics, and now these states have solid pro-life representatives.