WASHINGTON—Prolife actitivists can take heart that although the abortion issue faded from the foreground in the final months of the presidential campaign, prolife concerns had a significant impact on voting partterns. Post-election polling and exit-polling indicate that Bob Dole's pro-life position helped his bid for the presidency even though he lost the election.

A Wirthlin Worldwide post-election poll conducted nationwide the night of Nov. 5 reflected the positions of 1,030 respondents. The poll asked them to identify the one or two issues which mattered most to them in selecting a candidate. Twelve percent identified abortion as one of those. Of that group, 45 percent voted for Bob Dole, while only 35 percent voted for Bill Clinton.

Among women who identified abortion as one of the two most important voting issues (13 percent of all women), 50 percent voted for Dole while 39 percent voted for Clinton.

According to a Los Angeles Times exit poll of approximately 7,300 voters, voters who chose abortion as one of their top issues (9 percent), 60 percent voted for Bob Dole while only 34 percent voted for Bill Clinton. Also, 11 percent of women cited abortion as a voting issue in the Los Angeles Times poll. Of those, 54 percent voted for Bob Dole and 40 percent voted for Bill Clinton. (news wires)