Mrs. Bush: GOP Abortion Plank Unwise : Platform: Description of the procedure as a woman’s ‘personal choice’ is in sharp contrast with the President’s position.

Barbara Bush, in stunning contrast with the position her husband has maintained for the last 12 years, contends that abortion is “a personal choice” and that Republicans should drop the rigid anti-abortion plank from the current Republican Party platform.

In a White House interview with representatives of three newsmagazines released Thursday, Mrs. Bush described abortion and homosexuality as “a personal choice . . . (a) personal thing.” She said “The personal things should be left out of, in my opinion, out of platforms and conventions.”

And, in an interview with The Times and other newspapers on Thursday, Mrs. Bush leveled a blast at Republican National Committee Chairman Richard N. Bond for his recent attacks on Hillary Clinton, wife of Democratic standard-bearer Bill Clinton. “I don’t like it,” Mrs. Bush said of Bond’s allegation that Hillary Clinton is anti-family.

“I’m not going to lie to you about that,” the First Lady said. “I don’t like attacking. . . . She’s not running for office.”

Mrs. Bush also accused the media of bringing a negative tone to the campaign, and of bias against her husband. Reminded about harsh coverage of Bill Clinton earlier this year, she retorted: “Well, Mr. Clinton had some problems, though, and Mr. Bush doesn’t. I mean, I didn’t like it, I told you that, but he had a few problems with the draft; he had a lot to overcome there. And I think . . . well if he lied, he said one thing and did another, (then) I’m not sure that wasn’t legitimate.”

Mrs. Bush has seldom spoken out on policy matters and almost never at variance with her husband. She is extremely careful in her public statements, making it highly unlikely that her remarks on abortion and Bond were not cleared in advance at least with President Bush.

Mrs. Bush’s comments suggest that the President and top GOP strategists realize that the party’s anti-abortion stance will cost them votes in November--particularly from women and GOP moderates--and are trying to reclaim Republicans who support abortion rights.

Some political strategists have also suggested that harsh personal attacks on the Democrats--while effective in appealing to some voters--could offend others at a time of intense public dissatisfaction with the state of the nation. Mrs. Bush’s criticism of Bond has the effect of distancing the White House from the assaults.

In that context, Mrs. Bush’s remarks may be part of an emerging pattern. They mark the second time in nearly two weeks that attacks by a Bush campaign official on the opposition have later been repudiated by the White House. On Aug. 2, campaign political director Mary Matalin called attention to Bill Clinton’s acknowledged marijuana use and alleged adultery, only to be reprimanded for the remarks by Bush the next day.

A Clinton campaign official said Thursday that it appeared to be a cynical gambit to put a damaging charge out and then claim it was not authorized a day or so later. “It’s obvious a game is being played,” said Clinton-Gore campaign spokeswoman Avis LaVelle. “It’s like good cop/bad cop.”

In Houston, Jean Sullivan, an Alabama delegate to the GOP convention who has been taking part in the platform deliberations, said of Mrs. Bush’s remarks: “I’m sure she spoke from the heart, not out of politics.”

But whether from heart or mind, the First Lady’s comments, combined with her husband’s answer to a hypothetical question earlier in the week, in which he said that he would stand by his granddaughter if she chose to have an abortion, appear to have at least the potential for defusing the explosive issue and shielding the President’s beleaguered candidacy from harm.

“There’s a difference between talking about this as an abstraction and talking about it in reality,” said abortion rights activist Mary Crisp when told of the President’s supportive comments about his granddaughter.

Commenting on abortion in the interview Wednesday with the magazine writers, Mrs. Bush said the subject should not be part of the GOP platform “either pro or con.”

The First Lady declined to discuss her views on the controversial subject in Thursday’s interview with The Times and other papers. “I’ve had it with abortion,” she said testily, declaring she wished it were not a topic in the current campaign.

She criticized zealots on both sides of the abortion debate, saying that neither was entitled to claim a monopoly on morality. “Any moral superiority bothers me on either side and I’ve certainly seen it on both,” she said. “Both sides yell at me . . . I don’t think that’s healthy for the country when anyone thinks their morals are better than anyone else’s.

“The major issues ought to be peace, security, economy, health care, (the President’s) crime package, schools . . . those ought to be the major issues,” the First Lady said.

Abortion rights advocates applauded Mrs. Bush’s remarks. Kate Michelman, president of the National Abortion Rights Action League, said in a statement, “Most Americans believe that abortion is a personal choice. Unfortunately, the radical anti-choice plank in the Republican Party platform is entirely consistent with President Bush’s extreme anti-choice actions as President.”

President Bush held abortion rights views as a candidate for President in 1980, switching sides only after former President Ronald Reagan, who is against abortion, tapped him as running-mate.

A draft of the Republican Party platform approved Thursday in Houston by the 107-member platform committee calls for a constitutional amendment to ban abortion. An attempt by Republicans who are abortion rights advocates to delete all references to abortion was defeated 84 to 16. A Washington Post-ABC poll this week found that 55% of the 2,210 delegates do not support a constitutional amendment banning abortion.

Mrs. Bush told the magazine writers that she was neither “pro or con abortion.”

“We should be working on the commonness underneath this umbrella,” she said. “And, fine, you’re pro-choice. I understand that. Great, you’re pro-life. I understand that, too. And I know that you can argue yourself blue in the face, and you’re not going to change each other’s minds, and it’s a waste of your time and my time to try to change minds. People feel very strongly both ways.”

She was then asked whether she thought abortion and homosexuality were issues of personal preference. “Indeed they are,” she said.

Mrs. Bush’s position is identical to that taken by “Unity Platform ‘92,” a group of moderate Republicans who tried, without success, to persuade the GOP platform committee to drop all mention of abortion.

Sen. John Seymour (R-Calif.), who favors abortion rights and faces an uphill race this November against Democratic Senate candidate Dianne Feinstein, is a member of the national advisory board of the newly formed group.

Mrs. Bush’s criticism of GOP leader Bond referred to a speech he gave Wednesday asserting that Hillary Clinton, an attorney, advises her husband on his every move. Bond said she “believes kids should be able to sue their parents” and “has likened marriage and the family to slavery.”

He drew the conclusions--the Democrats say unfairly--from legal analyses Hillary Clinton wrote in 1974.

Even as she criticized Bond, Mrs. Bush said she “adores” the GOP chief and had not discussed the matter with him.

Mrs. Bush was also asked Thursday how she would respond if one of her granddaughters became pregnant. The First Lady gave an answer similar to her husband’s, when he was asked the same question in a television interview earlier this week. He said he would counsel the young woman against abortion, but would not reject her no matter what choice she made.

Mrs. Bush answered in terms of breaking the law or using drugs, saying she wouldn’t condone the behavior but wouldn’t disown the child. “I’d hate it and expect them to take their punishment . . . (but) I would always put my arms around my child, no matter how wrong they were.”

Previewing her prime-time convention appearance next week in which the First Lady will speak on the Republican theme of family values, Mrs. Bush preached a message of sexual abstinence, saying, “Promiscuous sex is a death threat. There’s no such thing as safe sex.”

The First Lady angrily dismissed questions about her husband’s alleged affair with a longtime aide as “sleaze,” “ugly” and “a lie in every way, shape and form.” She told the reporters “you all ought to be ashamed of yourselves for printing those things or asking those things.”

Times staff writers William J. Eaton and Robert Shogan contributed to this story.