Republicans Reject Proposal to Encourage Abortion Debate

Republicans favoring abortion rights failed Thursday in their attempt to encourage open debate of the issue within party ranks this year.

The vote by the Republican National Committee’s committee on resolutions came as the RNC opened its winter meeting to plan arrangements for next summer’s nominating convention here and to begin forging strategy for the 1996 general election campaign.

The resolutions committee voted, 9 to 0, in a closed meeting to table a bland-sounding, four-paragraph measure proposing that convention delegates be encouraged “to speak freely in any floor debate and to vote their conscience on the issue of abortion rights in the Republican national platform.”

Republicans have had a strong anti-abortion provision in their party platform since 1980.

Also at the meeting, party Chairman Haley Barbour said the rush of the states to hold their 1996 presidential primary elections at the start of the election year poses “a certain amount of danger to the body politic” and said the party should consider changes.

“I am concerned that our nominating process has become so compressed that it does not serve our party or its candidates very well,” Barbour said. “I am afraid those primaries are going to go off like a string of firecrackers.”

On the abortion resolution, those who opposed the proposal said they were offended by the measure’s implication that the party does not permit free speech or debate on any issue.

“I’ve always been able to speak open and freely,” said Maryland GOP Chairwoman Joyce Tehres. “I can assure you that it [abortion] will be discussed in the platform committee this year.”

But W. Laird Stabler, the national committeeman from Delaware who sponsored the resolution, said: “I feel the topic hasn’t been discussed. When you have a serious disagreement, sometimes it’s easier to just ignore it.”

And Susan R. Cullman of Washington, D.C., chairwoman of the Republican Coalition for Choice, said: “This is never on the agenda. When the subject comes up, a hush goes over the room.”

For his part, Barbour pledged that “there will be an honest, fair and open debate on every issue” at the convention.

“Abortion is an issue that can be debated without dividing the Republican Party,” he added.

He said election results have demonstrated that abortion has not been a pivotal issue in recent campaigns, citing united GOP support for such pro-choice Republicans as California Gov. Pete Wilson, Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan and Rep. Tom Campbell of San Jose.

Sponsors of the resolution released a list of 22 GOP officeholders who they said have endorsed their effort. The list did not include Wilson although he supports abortion rights and indicated once last year that he might join an effort to remove the anti-abortion plank from the platform in 1996.