c. 1996 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ Republicans seem sure to emerge from the upcoming San Diego convention with their party’s tough anti-abortion stand intact, including the call for a constitutional amendment that would outlaw virtually all abortions.

That’s because Bob Dole _ no matter how much he may want to broaden his support among pro-abortion rights Republican voters _ cannot afford to alienate his party’s core constituency of anti-abortion, religious conservatives and still have any hope of capturing the White House in November.

Religious right activists have already warned they might dampen their support for the presumptive GOP presidential candidate if he tampers with the amendment language. Some have threatened to storm out of the convention hall before a nationwide TV audience. Some say they would sit out the election.

Yet there they were Thursday (July 25), nine congressional Republicans who favor abortion rights, standing on the steps of the Supreme Court and insisting that their party’s platform should not include any such constitutional amendment. The majority of GOP voters do not favor any such amendment, they said, nor does it have any chance of getting through the Congress.

But the real message conveyed by these congressional Republicans seemed to be that GOP moderates should ignore the party platform and look beyond San Diego to the fall campaign, when Dole might free himself of the anti-abortion activists who so far have won the day on this issue.

Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania admitted as much when he said the so-called”tolerance language”that Dole has proposed for inclusion in the party platform”goes about as far as”he (Dole) can go at this time.

That tolerance language is meant as a signal to moderate Republicans that they still have a place in the party. Thursday’s news conference _ staged with Dole’s advance knowledge _ was another signal.”The platform of the Republican Party should not be an impediment for you to support Bob Dole for president,”said Rep. Tom Campbell of California.

Pennsylvania Rep. Jim Greenwood called the party platform irrelevant and said the constitutional amendment would threaten the religious liberty that he termed fundamental to the nation’s political health.

Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine said she spoke with Dole prior to Thursday’s event, although she insisted that he did not sanction the press conference.

The Dole campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Snowe acknowledged, however, that by putting forth the image of a Republican Party that welcomes abortion-rights supporters she and her congressional colleagues we’re”doing Bob Dole a favor.””We’re saying this is an inclusive party,”she said. The Human Life Amendment, as the anti-abortion amendment is formally called,”does not unify or define Republicans,”she added.

In all, 39 congressional Republicans _ most of them from the northeast _ signed on to the call to purge the anti-abortion constitutional amendment from the party platform, which will be finalized just prior to the San Diego convention that begins Aug. 12.

If there must be a party platform reference to abortion, the group favors language similar to that adopted by Wyoming Republicans. That state’s Republican Party has adopted a plank that”welcomes individuals on each side of the abortion issue, encourages their open discussion, solicits their active participation, and respects their positions and beliefs.” As with the constitutional amendment, the congressional Republicans also acknowledged that they have little chance of getting the Wyoming language accepted by the national party.

Given all this, none of the group is prepared to go to San Diego and launch a divisive convention floor fight over abortion language that can only serve to weaken Dole’s candidacy.

When asked if they would, the congressional Republicans who spoke at the news conference sidestepped the question with bland responses stressing the value of voicing opposing opinions.

But as Specter put it,”Republicans need to unite behind Bob Dole and take the big tent approach”to party squabbles over abortion _ no matter what the candidate may say or do in the short-term.

MJP END RIFKIN