WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Although his conservatism has been questioned on taxes and immigration, Mike Huckabee insists that no other candidate takes a tougher line against abortion, a pivotal issue in the race for the Republican nomination.

The former Baptist pastor says it is not enough to overturn Roe v. Wade, a move that would leave individual states to decide whether to keep abortion legal. Huckabee also wants the U.S. Constitution amended to outlaw the procedure nationally.

"If abortion is a political issue, and that's all it is, then fine, have 50 versions," Huckabee told The Examiner in an interview. "But if we have determined, as many of us have, that it's a moral issue, then you can't have 50 different versions of what's right and what's wrong."

Huckabee likened abortion to suffrage and slavery, issues of such moral consequence that they had to be decided nationally. He said allowing individual states to decide abortion would diminish its importance to the level of speeding laws.

Huckabee said he is "without a doubt" more conservative on abortion than rival Republicans Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, John McCain and Fred Thompson. Many conservatives consider abortion to be the most important issue in the 2008 presidential campaign.

On other issues important to conservatives, Huckabee's credentials have been questioned. He had a mixed record on taxes when he was governor of Arkansas. And he wants to give illegal immigrants a path to citizenship if they pay a fine and admit guilt.

Still, Huckabee gives no quarter on any of these issues.

"In the hierarchy of issues, all the way down to the last one, I'm a conservative," he told The Examiner. "Now there may be somebody who, let's say, is more harsh on immigration than me. But my policy on immigration is very much a conservative one, not even close to a moderate one."

bsammon@dcexaminer.com