The State of the Union address will indicate how seriously President George W. Bush plans to pursue initiatives important to the “moral values” voters--who take credit for helping re-elect him president.

The huge turnout last November of conservative Christian voters, motivated by their opposition to gay marriage and abortion, benefited Mr Bush--an openly religious president who embraced a constitutional proposal to ban gay marriage. But the same voters have been disappointed in recent weeks by what they see as a lack of urgency in the administration for a marriage amendment, or for specific anti-abortion initiatives.