WASHINGTON (By Steven Ertelt, LifeNews.com) September 5, 2007 — The pro-life movement has a key ally and the support comes from an unlikely source that's producing considerable consternation on another political issue — Hispanic immigrants. A new survey of incoming Hispanics finds that they don't have attachments to the Democratic Party and are pro-life on abortion.

The Congressional Hispanic Leadership Institute polled Hispanic immigrants in the Washington metropolitan area. The study consisted of 279 one-on-one interviews among immigrants of Hispanic descent.

In total, 83 percent of the Hispanics in the survey oppose abortion CHLI said and, even among liberals, 60% oppose abortion.

More specifically, 52 percent said they strongly opposed abortion and 28 percent said they were somewhat opposed to abortion. Only 15 percent said they support legal abortions.

Raimundo Rojas, the Hispanic outreach coordinator for the National Right to Life Committee, told LifeNews.com that the poll validates what pro-life advocates have been saying for years about reaching out to Hispanic voters.

"Another poll, more statistics and numbers that prove yet again that Hispanics in general, are pro-life, pro-American, and very conservative on most social issues," he said.
 

"Yet nearly 50 percent of those polled felt that elected officials don't care about them. This should serve as yet another wake up call to pro-life politicians and political parties who want to court Hispanics on their issues," Rojas explained.

"The pro-abortion movement has nothing to offer Hispanics but disdain, this poll shows that Latinos are open to social conservatism and that we value life," he told LifeNews.com. "Let's hope the powers that be are listening and will act upon yet another recitation of statistics that show where Latinos lean politically."

Octavio Hinojosa, CHLI Executive Director, said, in a statement that LifeNews.com obtained, that the Hispanic group's survey found Hispanic "overwhelmingly oppose legal abortion and believe in the importance of regularly attending church services."

"These conservative trends provide an interesting picture of today's Hispanic immigrant," it said. "they support preserving their strong family values."

Other surveys of Hispanic voters find similar results when it comes to a pro-life position on abortion.

Conducted by Miami-based Encuesta Inc., an independent market research and opinion polling firm, a November 2006 poll asked both Hispanic and non-Hispanic voters to consider which political issues were important in deciding their vote.

Some 64 percent of Hispanics said abortion was very important while 40 percent of non-Hispanic voters said abortion was important, a difference of 24 percent.

Reaching out to Hispanic voters can be a key to victory for pro-life candidates.

A post-election poll conducted by the University of Akron, showed that the abortion issue helped President Bush make considerable gains in the 2004 elections among Catholics and Hispanics.

According to the survey, some 63 percent of Hispanic Protestants supported Bush in 2004 compared with just 32 percent in 2000. Meanwhile, Hispanic Catholics gave Bush a 53 to 47 percent advantage over the Massachusetts senator, also an increase over Bush's 2000 numbers.