US Republican presidential contenders on Saturday railed against abortion rights as they courted religious conservatives, promising Christian values would guide their personal decisions and public policies should they win the presidency.
“My faith has guided me for my entire life, and I don’t suspect that is going to change,” former Texas governor Rick Perry said after ticking off a list of abortion restrictions enacted while he led Texas. “No candidate’s done more to protect unborn life.”
Perry was among nearly a dozen presidential hopefuls in Washington this week for one of the nation’s premier gatherings of Christian activists.
Former Florida governor Jeb Bush called his Catholic faith “an organizing part of my architecture.”
Ohio Governor John Kasich said religion gives him more empathy toward the poor, while US Senator Ted Cruz of Texas cited his Christian values in lashing out at the US Supreme Court.
The Faith and Freedom Coalition’s annual conference began the day after nine African-Americans were shot dead inside a historic South Carolina church, offering a grim backdrop to the three-day meeting designed to give religious activists a closer look at the large class of Republican candidates and others considering bids.
Beyond decrying the shootings in South Carolina, presidential prospects offered religious conservatives an intimate look at the role of faith in their public lives.
Bush on Friday said that he converted to Catholicism after marrying his Mexican-born wife.
The religion has been “an organizing part of my architecture, if you will, as a person and certainly as an elected official,” he said.
He highlighted his work to institute new abortion restrictions during his administration, which included strict parental notification laws and a ban on “partial-birth” abortion. He also cited his fight for the life of Terry Schiavo, a Florida woman kept in a vegetative state for 15 years on life support. While her husband wanted her feeding tubes removed, Bush ordered the tubes reinserted only to be overruled by a federal court.
“I insisted that we build a culture of life,” Bush said of his eight years as Florida governor.
Saying that “people of sincere faith make better leaders,” former technology executive Carly Fiorina criticized Democrats for being weak on social issues.
“I do not think progressives share our belief in gifts and the dignity of each and every human life,” she said.
The Republican Party’s evangelical wing wields great influence in the selection of their presidential nominee, particularly in Iowa and many of the southern states scheduled to host primary contests early in the voting calendar — South Carolina prominent among them.
Exit polls taken during last year’s midterm elections found that four in 10 Republican voters were white evangelical Christians, and nearly half attended religious services weekly. Among Democrats, one-third attend services weekly, while 11 percent are white born-again Christians.
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