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Pro-life Candidate Thompson Now Leads Republican Nomination

By Peter J. Smith

NASHVILLE, Tennessee, June 20, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - For the first time, a new poll shows leading pro-abortion Republican candidate Rudy Giuliani has lost first place in the GOP presidential running, to a pro-life and as-yet undeclared candidate, Fred Thompson.

The latest Rasmussen Poll shows the former Tennessee lawmaker and actor in the TV drama "Law and Order" draws support from 28% of likely Republican voters, while Rudy Giuliani places a close second at 27%. Rasmussen reports that while Thompson's lead is "statistically insignificant" it is the first time this year that "anybody but Giuliani has been on top."

Thompson's emergence to the national stage as a reliable conservative candidate with a pro-life record in large part has been a response to the frustration and dissatisfaction in the Republican Party's vital conservative base over the current list of candidates.

While former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani remains popular among Republicans (82%) for his leadership style and tough talk on terrorism and national security, Rasmussen reports that only 21% see him as a conservative. His candidacy is also complicated by his unapologetic stance on abortion, which would alienate the party's crucial pro-life base.

Mitt Romney's rising star has now sunk to 10% support among Republicans, despite a massive fundraising and public relations campaign designed to convince conservatives and the pro-life movement that his dramatic "conversion" a few years ago to the right is genuine and reliable.

A number of conservatives unhappy with the past performance of either Giuliani, Romney, and the volatile Senator John McCain began to look to "draft Fred Thompson" earlier in the year. These groups included the "Draft Fred Thompson 2008" committee, which boasted to have collected over 50,000 signatures urging Thompson to enter the race.

Pro-life advocates will no doubt scrutinize Thompson's pro-life position both now and during his years in the Senate before signing on board to his candidacy. Thompson will also have to deal with statements he made a decade ago to Project Vote Smart in 1994 and the Christian Coalition in 1996, favoring legal abortion in the first trimester and opposing criminalizing abortion. Other issues are his two votes in favor of the Campaign Finance Reform laws, which Thompson has now attempted to distance himself from.

However during his time in the Senate from 1994-2003, Thompson boasted a 100% voting record from the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC). Earlier in the week he reaffirmed his commitment to pro-life principles again in a message to NRLC saying they have become "more profound as the years go by." (http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/jun/07061903.html)

Thompson has supported overturning Roe v. Wade, calling it "bad law and bad medical science" saying "I don't think the court ought to wake up one day and make new social policy for the country. It's contrary to what it's been the past 200 years." On the other hand, like Mitt Romney, he does not favor a constitutional amendment banning abortion, but prefers the "federalist approach," where the states decide abortion law for themselves.

See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

Pro-life Senator Fred Thompson to Add "Law and Order" to Republican Presidential Candidate Race
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/may/07053109.html

Fred Thompson Declares Pro-life Stance Before National Right to Life Committee
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/jun/07061903.html

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