U.S. Religious Right Baffled By Election

According to the Advocate:

From around the US voters sent messages that altered America's culture wars and dismayed the religious right -- defending abortion rights in US state South Dakota, endorsing stem cell research in Missouri, and, in a national first, rejecting a same-sex marriage ban in Arizona. Conservative leaders were jolted by the setbacks and looked for an explanation on Wednesday. Gay rights and abortion rights activists celebrated.

The verdict on abortion rights was particularly clear. Oregon and California voters defeated measures requiring parents to be notified before a girl under 18 could get an abortion, and South Dakotans - by a margin of 56 percent to 44 percent - rejected a new state law that would have banned all abortions except to save a pregnant woman's life.

"This was really a rebellion in the heart" of anti-abortion Republican territory, said Sarah Stoesz, head of the Planned Parenthood chapter that oversees South Dakota. "It sends a very strong message to the rest of the country." South Dakota legislators had passed the law in expectation it would trigger a court challenge and lead to a possible Supreme Court reversal of the 1973 Roe vs Wade decision legalising abortion. Anti-abortion leaders said the Republicans shared some of the blame for the defeat.The Reverend Thomas J Euteneuer, president of Human Life International, said President Bush and other top Republicans failed to campaign strongly for the South Dakota abortion ban and against the Missouri stem cell measure. "While South Dakotans fought valiantly to defend their babies, we once again witnessed an almost total lack of support from the national leadership," Euteneuer said. Operation Rescue president Troy Newman said the election results meant any legislation from Congress restricting abortion would be "virtually impossible" for the next two years.

Janice Shaw Crouse of Concerned Women for America suggested that Republicans -- some of them entangled in corruption and sex scandals -- had lost some of the selling power of the "family values" themes they had pushed in recent elections. "Families had such high hopes when conservatives were in power; they ended up discouraged, disappointed and disillusioned," she said.

In Missouri, anti-abortion groups, evangelical Christian clergy and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St Louis campaigned hard against the stem cell measure, contending it would condone life-destroying embryonic research.

Voters in six states also approved ballot boosting their minimum wage above the federally mandated $5.15 an hour, getting a jump on newly empowered Democrats in Congress who have vowed to raise the wage nationwide.
The measures won with support ranging from 76 percent in Missouri to 53 percent in Colorado, where business groups mounted an aggressive opposition campaign.Arizona, Montana, Nevada and Ohio also approved increases, joining 23 other states that already have set their minimum wages above the federal level.