'Pro-Choice' Republicans Condemn Platform

P H I L A D E L P H I A, July 31 -- — The GOP is trying to put forward a united front at its national convention in Philadelphia, but Republican abortion rights activists call the party platform a “disgrace,” and blame George W. Bush for excluding their views from the document.

“The platform calls for a constitutional amendment to ban abortion,” says Lynn Greef, national director of the Republican Pro-Choice Coalition. “The platform still calls for a litmus test on judges. We clearly oppose that platform.”

Although the Platform Committee that helped draft the document softened language on a number of social issues — including education and immigration — to better reflect the “compassionate conservative” philosophy of Bush, the GOP presidential candidate, the language on abortion was unchanged from the platform adopted at the 1996 Republican National Convention in San Diego. The platform, adopted this morning by convention delegates, calls for a ban on all abortions under any circumstances and advocates the ratification of a constitutional amendment to outlaw the procedure.

“The unborn child has a fundamental individual Right to life which cannot be infringed,” the language reads.

‘We’re All Disappointed’

“We’re all disappointed at what went on here,” said Randall J. Moody, co-chair of Planned Parenthood Republicans for Choice. “We made many attempts to convince ‘pro-choice’ delegates and those who weren’t that there should be no abortion language in the party platform, that it’s not a political issue.”

Those attempts, according to Ann Stone, chairman of Republicans for Choice, were gaining momentum until the Bush campaign intervened.

“There were a lot of people that were willing to come forward that were not with us on the issue, but felt that what we were asking for was very fair,” Stone said today. “It became like a freight train … and then it hit a brick wall called the Bush campaign.”