Impacto del Aborto
Hispano Americanos Pro-Vida
Desayuno de Oracịn Hispano
El Acto de las Victimas de Crimines No Nacidas
Aborto de Nacimiento Parcial
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Rallying Latino Voters in 2006
By Rai Rojas
At the 2004 Democratic Convention in Boston, Massachusetts, New Mexico
Governor Bill Richardson, who is an Hispanic, said, "If he [President Bush]
gets 40 percent of the Hispanic vote, we've lost the race." He proved
prophetic.
A couple of months later, on November 2, President Bush received as much of
45% of the Hispanic vote and went on to beat the radically pro-abortion team
of Senators John Kerry and John Edwards. It was the highest percentage of
the Hispanic vote a Republican running for President had received in a very
long time.
That was no accident. Hispanics are naturally pro-life and the President's
embrace of the culture of life resonated with them. In fact with one
exception, pro-life Republicans have done very well in the Hispanic
community.
In the 1980 presidential elections Ronald Reagan received 40% of the
Hispanic vote over pro-abortion Walter Mondale. In 1984 President Reagan
received nearly half (48 %) of that vote.
In 1988 President George H. W. Bush received 47% of the Hispanic vote in his
landslide victory over pro-abortion Michael Ducks of Massachusetts. And even
when he lost to pro-abortion Bill Clinton in 1992, President Bush received
nearly 40% of the Latino vote.
For 12 years we saw a solid increase in the number of Hispanics willing to
cross what many erroneously believed to be their party line and vote for
pro-life Republicans. Many exit polls in these elections showed that issues
concerning Latinos most involved their families and values that they felt
were best represented by the GOP.
Then in 1996, for a variety of reasons unrelated to our issue, Senator Bob
Dole only received 25% of the Latino vote-- three out of four Hispanics
voted for Bill Clinton. Many commentators argued this meant that Hispanics
had returned to their "natural" party, conveniently ignoring the fact that
the Democratic Party had become the "Party of Death," anathema to the values
of the Hispanic community.
But that was before pro-life Texas Governor George W. Bush arrived on the
national scene. Defying predictions, in his 2000 presidential bid he managed
to get almost 40% of the Latino vote. Four years later, he received upwards
of 45 % of that vote. Again, Latinos "crossed party lines" and voted for a
man whose values were more in-line with theirs.
But since the 2004 elections, we have seen Congress try to stem the tide of
illegal immigration. Predictably, we see the media and Democrats trying to
use this again to rally Latinos into an anti-GOP frenzy.
National Right to Life is a non-partisan, single-issue organization. We work
within the law to change the law on abortion, euthanasia, infanticide, and
other life issues. To move our agenda forward, we need to retain pro-life
majorities and/or pro-life leadership in Congress.
In 2006 we are fighting historic trends, such as the "six-year jinx"---the
pattern of a president losing members of his party in the off-year elections
of his second term. We have to fight for Latino votes as we never have
before.
How can we carry the Latino vote? With our message of life and of hope.
While they may or may not agree with individual pro-life candidates on other
issues, we must reinforce the lesson that Life must trump all other issues.
And with your hard work this election cycle, we can do that.
Over the years, I have written in these pages that Latinos are a natural
constituency of ours. They have proven me right over and over again. I'll
mention two quick polls -- one quite recent, and one from about 18 months
ago, to underscore that point.
During the horrendously painful Terri Schindler Schiavo] ordeal in Florida,
media outlets polled the citizens of the state on an almost daily basis. At
the time I thought those polls were crass and caustic. Terri wasn't an
"issue," Terri was a beautiful young woman whose food and water had been
withdrawn.
Terri's drawn out, unnecessary death deeply affected us all. But that didn't
stop the local newspapers from asking whether Terri should be "allowed to
die," as if starving and dehydrating a woman to death was not actively
causing her to die.
The one positive thing to come out of that constant polling is that,
consistently, no matter who was asking the question or how misleading the
wording, the only demographic exception to the pro-death-for-Terri majority
were Hispanic voters.
Over and over again, whether they were registered voters or just Hispanics
in general, they rejected the notion that this young woman should die. Only
38% of Hispanics disapproved of Florida Governor Jeb Bush's actions in
trying to save Terri.
More recently, a survey was taken in mid-September of voters in the state of
Missouri, asking if they supported Amendment 2. This amendment to the state
constitution promotes both human cloning and lethal embryonic stem cell
research.
Again, Hispanics were the most opposed. The bottom line is that "life" is an
easy sell to Latinos.
Our efforts, though sometimes made more difficult because of the language
barrier, bear more fruits in that community. We have to make sure that as
many Latinos hear our message as possible.
We must not forget those communities – no matter how small – when organizing
lit drops and radio buys.
It is a tough fight this year to get the Hispanic vote. But we have the
winning ticket: we promote life, and, in the end, we Hispanics treasure that
above all.
Please help get the National Right to Life message of life out to your
state's Latino population.
Mr. Rojas is NRLC's Hispanic Outreach Coordinator
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