Huckabee Gets Pro-Life Nod

Melanie Hunter | Senior Editor | Updated: Nov 19, 2007

Huckabee Gets Pro-Life Nod

(CNSNews.com) - Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee received an endorsement Wednesday from a national pro-life leader in his 2008 GOP presidential bid, while a recent poll shows Huckabee gaining ground in Iowa on former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney seven weeks before voting in the caucuses begins.

In a CBS/New York Times poll (conducted Nov. 2 -11), Huckabee had 21 percent support compared to Romney's 27 percent among likely Iowa caucus-goers. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani had 15 percent, compared to former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson with 9 percent, and Arizona Sen. John McCain with 4 percent.

Thomas Glessner, founder and president of the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates (NIFLA), which provides legal services to Pregnancy Resource Centers, said Huckabee is someone "who has the moral convictions and commitment to work to end the cultural nightmare of abortion."

Glessner has served as CEO of NIFLA for 15 years and has had a national leadership role in the pro-life movement since 1987.

"Now is not the time to pragmatically endorse and support candidates who have questionable records on abortion simply because conventional political wisdom appears to tell us that they have the best chance of winning," said Glessner in an endorsement letter.

"This is not the time to hope for the best from the worst of candidates because it appears that they are the probable winners," he said. "No! There is too much at stake, and if we fail to support the candidates who truly support us then we have failed ourselves."

Huckabee is considered a fiscal conservative who pushed through the Arkansas Legislature the first major broad-based tax cuts in the state's history - a $90 million tax-relief package for Arkansas families, according to his campaign Web site.

He also spearheaded efforts to create a Property Taxpayers' Bill of Rights and a welfare reform program that reduced the welfare rolls by 50 percent in the state.

As chairman of the National Governors' Association, Huckabee promoted his Healthy America Initiative, based on a successful Healthy Arkansas model, an effort to encourage residents to exercise, eat healthier and stop smoking. The state initiative was a direct result of his efforts to get healthier by losing 110 pounds after being diagnosed with Type II diabetes in 2003.

Make media inquiries or request an interview about this article.







Huckabee Gets Pro-Life Nod