ATLANTA — Just days into the Republican runoff for governor in Georgia, abortion has emerged as a polarizing issue in a race where social conservatives will hold sway.

Karen Handel — on the defensive over a 2005 vote to funnel $425,568 to Planned Parenthood — has been feuding with Georgia Right to Life and has called for the anti-abortion group’s leaders to step down.

After attacking Handel’s abortion record, Deal is facing questions of his own 1993 vote as a Democrat in Congress to authorize $500 million in funding for Planned Parenthood.

While Planned Parenthood performs abortions officials say in both cases federal law bans the money — federal Title X funding — from being used for that purpose.

Still, the furious back-and-forth shows how important the abortion issue is in the Aug. 10 gubernatorial runoff, when Republican voters will decide who will face Democrat Roy Barnes in November. Exit polling from the 2008 presidential primary in Georgia found six out of 10 GOP primary voters were evangelicals or born again Christians. For those religious voters, issues like abortion are crucial.

Handel and Deal have each cast themselves as anti-abortion but there are differences.

Deal opposes abortions except where the life of the mother is at stake. Handel supports additional exceptions for cases of rape and incest.

Explaining his 1993 vote, Deal initially said “a lot of us were not fully convinced of where ... Planned Parenthood was and what they were doing with their money.”

Deal then acknowledged his opposition to abortion has strengthened over the years.

“And it was a personal change of opinion. It was one that I had had prayerful thought about for a very long period of time,” Deal said.

Deal said his opposition to abortion solidified after a series of discussions with “my minister, friends who are religious advisers and friends within the pro-life community.”

“And I came to the conclusion that it was the only appropriate and moral thing to do, was to be consistent on the issue,” he said.

Deal spokesman Brian Robinson noted, in 1993, when the Planned Parenthood vote was cast, Deal received an 89 percent rating from the National Right to Life Committee. And that he later voted against the budget bill that would have appropriated the money. In a statement release by his campaign to AP after his remarks, Deal said he has personally always opposed abortion but his public policy views “became even more conservative over time.”

The Handel campaign quickly seized on Deal’s comments.

“Hypocrisy is the native tongue of career Washington politicians and Nathan Deal speaks it fluently,” said Handel’s campaign spokesman Dan McLagan.

Deal has not been shy about attacking Handel’s vote to funnel federal block grant money to Planned Parenthood while chairwoman of the Fulton County Commission.

“Politicians who vote to give your money to abortion providers can spin it anyway they like, but taxpayer dollars for one service frees up money elsewhere to provide abortion services,” Deal said in a statement on his website.

Leola Reis, spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood Georgia, said the money went to a downtown Atlanta clinic that does not perform abortions. The money, Reis said, was used for services like cervical cancer screening, testing for sexually transmitted diseases and birth control.

University of Georgia political science professor Charles Bullock said Deal’s 17-year-old vote weakens his argument that he’s the only true conservative.

“Nathan“s out there saying there are chinks in my opponent’s armor, well look, now there’s a chink in his armor as well,” Bullock said. “It could take the issue off the table.”

Handel, meanwhile, has been feuding with Georgia Right to Life, the largest anti-abortion organization in the state, ever since they refused to back her. The politically-powerful group’s endorsement is coveted by candidates seeking to prove their conservative anti-abortion credentials.

Handel has continued to insist she’s conservative enough on abortion, despite falling short of the group’s definition of pro-life.

“For government to look in the face of a mother of a 13-year-old who has the bad fortune of having been raped and then becomes pregnant and tells that mother what is going to happen in her family, I think that that is between that family, their faith and God,” Handel said at a candidate forum Friday.

Last week, Handel called for the resignation of two Georgia Right to Life leaders.

Handel took exception to comments Melanie Crozier, head of the group’s political action committee, made to Politco critical of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s decision to support Handel.

Back in June, Georgia Right to Life President Dan Becker called Handel “barren” and “infertile” because she and her husband were unable to have children.

Handel said both Becker and Crozier should resign.

Georgia Right to Life officials did not return phone calls seeking comment.