Republicans Debate Stand on Abortion

SALT LAKE CITY — Militant advocates on both sides of the abortion issue clashed Tuesday at Republican Party platform hearings here, with the prospective presidential candidacy of Ross Perot adding new complexity to the political factors that have shaped the decades-long controversy over constitutional rights and moral principles.

Proponents of modifying the 1988 platform’s unsparing opposition to abortion hailed the party’s willingness to let them air their views as a sign of progress, and contended that Perot’s likely candidacy increases the pressure on President Bush to modify the stringent anti-abortion language.

Perot, whose strong showing in the polls has stunned the political world, supports the right to abortion.

Perot offers “a place to go for Republican women” who disagree with the platform position “but couldn’t vote for (Bill) Clinton,” the expected Democratic standard-bearer, Ann Stone said in an interview. Stone, who testified at the hearings, is chairwoman of Republicans for Choice.

But Phyllis Schlafly, head of the Republican National Coalition for Life, testified in support of retaining the 1988 language and contended that the Perot factor would work the other way.

“Perot and Clinton will split the pro-choice vote,” she said, allowing Bush to garner the solid support of committed abortion foes.

Another factor mitigating against a shift by the President is that it would be taken as a sign of political weakness. Bush has changed his position on the issue once, when he abandoned his previous support of the right to abortion after former President Ronald Reagan picked him as his running mate in 1980.

If Bush changed his position again, “it would send the wrong message,” said Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), who attended the opening of the hearings.

At issue are three separate sections of the 1988 platform, which call for a constitutional ban on abortion, establish opposition to abortion as a criteria for judicial appointments and oppose funding of international organizations involved in abortion.

The Salt Lake City hearings are part of a series of forums that the GOP is holding around the country to gather opinions on various issues. The platform will be drafted a week before the mid-August convention in Houston.

The hearings, which took brief testimony from four witnesses on each side of the controversy, represented the most significant official effort by the Republican leadership to acknowledge differences within the party on the issue since a 1989 Supreme Court decision gave states increased authority to regulate abortion.

Although backers of the right to abortion complained about the location--in this redoubt of the Rocky Mountain West--and the timing--on the day after the Memorial Day weekend--they sought to make the most of the opportunity.

They rented space on 18 local billboards, citing polls they say show that most Republicans support their position. They hosted a reception, staged an outdoor rally and vowed they will take their fight to the convention floor in Houston if they can meet the requirement for majority support from at least six state delegations.

Defenders of the platform fought back. They sponsored their own rally and held a press conference at which Schlafly vigorously defended the platform on grounds of principle and practical politics.

In calling for a change in the platform, Stone criticized abortion foes who cite adoption as a solution for unmarried women who cannot rear the children to whom they give birth. She pointed out that “babies who are not perfect--babies with AIDS, babies born addicted to crack, and non-white babies”--often are difficult to place.

She challenged supporters of the platform, saying: “If you vote for the platform language as is, that would mandate more unwanted children be born, then back up that commitment with action and adopt.” Stone then handed out adoption papers to members of the platform panel.

Mary Crisp. a former Republican National Committee co-chairwoman, also sought to modify the abortion language. Crisp, chairwoman of the National Republican Coalition for Choice, said “anti-choice is anti-Republican and anti-American” as well as “losing politics.”

Robert Taft Jr., a former U.S. senator from Ohio, and Harriett Stinson, founding director of California Republicans for Choice, also testified in support of relaxing the platform language. Taft called for a change in the platform’s opposition to funding international programs involved in family planning if the programs also countenance abortion.

Stinson argued that the platform’s anti-abortion planks should be replaced with support for programs to prevent pregnancy by increasing access to contraception and by teaching abstinence.

In defense of the platform, Schlafly likened the current furor over abortion to the 19th-Century debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas over slavery. Lincoln, a Republican, denounced slavery as evil, she said, while Douglas contended that Americans should make up their own minds about slavery. “In other words,” she said, “he was pro-choice.” By choosing “high moral principle,” the Republican Party became the nation’s majority party, she said.

The other three witnesses defending the platform language were Helen Alvere of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, Carol Long of the National Right-to-Life Committee, and Carol Everett, a former manager of abortion clinics who is now associated with the anti-abortion Life Network.

Alvere contended that advocates of legal abortion “have succeeded in nothing but making abortion more common.” Long said opposition to abortion had “increased the ranks of the Republican Party,” and Everett said that support for abortion was motivated by greed, calling it “the largest unregulated industry in our country.”

At the start of the daylong hearings, which also included hourlong sessions on family issues, education, crime and welfare reform, Republican National Chairman Richard N. Bond sought to extend an olive branch to platform critics. “There is no litmus test on this or any other issue in the Republican Party,” he said. “And if you happen to disagree with our party posture on abortion or any other issue, then you’re still welcome. You’re welcome to voice your opinion and to disagree.”

The chairman of the platform committee, Sen. Don Nickles of Oklahoma, said after the testimony: “I don’t know that I heard a great deal of willingness to try to forge any compromise or consensus.”

Another variable in the abortion political equation is an impending Supreme Court ruling on a Pennsylvania law regulating abortion. The Bush Administration has urged the court to use the case as a vehicle to repeal Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 case that recognized the right to abortion.

Critics of the platform predict that if the court does overturn Roe, there would be a backlash against both the court and the President, which could force Bush to shift his stand.

But Angela (Bay) Buchanan, chairman of her brother Patrick’s presidential campaign, disagreed with that analysis. She called a press conference in Salt Lake City to chide Bush for being insufficiently supportive of the platform’s opposition to abortion and predicted that if the Supreme Court does overturn Roe, “it will be because of Republican presidents, George Bush being one,” she said. “He should stand up and take the credit.”