McCain Poised to Flip on GOP Abortion Platform

"There are going to be a number of people supporting his nomination that want that plank left exactly as it is," he said. "They're going to be a strong majority."

The GOP's platform committee will meet in Minneapolis-St. Paul the week before the Sept. 1-4 Republican National Convention.

Winning Conservatives, Alienating Moderates?

While leaving the platform untouched would please many in the GOP's socially conservative base, it could alienate some of the more moderate voters that McCain hopes to woo.

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"If he doesn't change the platform, then he's being the same kind of hypocrite that he accused Bush of being in 2000," said Jennifer Blei Stockman, the co-chairwoman of Republican Majority for Choice. "To not accept abortion in cases of rape and incest, give me a break. That's sick. That's inhumane."

"And the life of the mother?" she added. "These are things that we can't even put our arms around because they are so inhumane."

Brownback defended McCain against the prospect of being called a flip-flopper.

"I don't know how you can accuse John McCain of being a flip-flop on a topic where the party rank and file that will be at the convention will support that plank even if his views differ slightly," said Brownback. "Newt Gingrich had the right statement: It's a pro-life party with a pro-choice wing."

Stockman said that McCain's team is ignoring his previous commitments on this issue and is intentionally downplaying his clout.

"If McCain chooses not to revise the platform, I think he will say it's 'the system' and he will try to distance himself from it," said Stockman. "But he absolutely has the power to change it."

"Many people think of him as a moderate," she said. "But when it comes out that he doesn't want to change this extreme, right-wing Republican platform, the word 'moderate' is going to disappear from any description of McCain."

ABC News' Talal Al-Khatib contributed to this report.