He has supported several measures to restrict abortion rights, ban partial-birth abortion and define human fetuses as children (with attendant government-provided health benefits).
Gallup recorded a significant drop in the number of Americans saying abortion should be legal in all cases, coincident with the emergence of a loud national debate over partial-birth abortion.
This time the target is a high-profile one: LeRoy Carhart, whose name will forever be linked with partial-birth abortion--the barely prenatal version of Kermit Gosnell's "snipping"--through a pair of Supreme Court cases: Stenberg v.
The religious right, which fared poorly in the congressional elections, suffered a setback in two referendums as well: initiatives outlawing partial-birth abortion failed in Colorado and Washington, though Colorado voters did approve a separate measure requiring parental notification in the case of minors seeking abortions.