Wilson Will Fight GOP’s Antiabortion Plank

Gov. Pete Wilson said Monday that the time has come for abortion rights supporters to take their cause to the Republican National Convention, adding that he will not back away from the fight this summer even if requested to do so by the presumptive GOP nominee, Bob Dole.

Unlike the 1992 Republican convention, when Wilson urged his allies to drop a losing battle against an antiabortion plank in the party’s platform, the governor said he believes there may be enough votes at this year’s San Diego gathering to change the party’s stand.

“I remain in the camp of those who think that we are wise to substitute for the existing plank,” Wilson told reporters Monday. “I don’t know how the Dole campaign feels about it. . . . I think there are many more of us now than [there were in 1992].”

Wilson has been criticized in the last year by both sides of the abortion debate for appearing to emphasize and then soften his stand on the party’s platform language.

On Monday he repeated his hope to avoid a divisive battle that might hurt Dole’s chances for unseating President Clinton. Instead, the governor said he will search for common ground between abortion rights supporters and opponents.

He said, for example, that all Republicans might agree on policies that discourage unwanted pregnancies. And he suggested that such a plank might be substituted for the one that now seeks a constitutional amendment to ban abortion.

“My hope and my advice is that we would be well disposed to agree on language that is a good deal more relevant to reality than that plank,” he said.

But if the party cannot agree on a compromise, Wilson also helped set the stage for a showdown by saying he will join forces with two other GOP governors who have promised to try to eliminate the platform’s antiabortion stand--Christie Todd Whitman of New Jersey and George Pataki of New York.

Together, the trio of political heavyweights appears to be on a collision course with conservative Republicans like presidential candidate Pat Buchanan who have vowed a vigorous battle over any challenge to the status quo.

Wilson urged Dole to ignore demands by Buchanan and others.

“Bob Dole won the nomination despite the most strenuous efforts of Mr. Buchanan,” the governor said. “I don’t think Bob Dole, as the nominee, needs to seek the blessing of a lesser candidate.”

Dole’s own position is that abortion should be banned except in cases of rape, incest and when necessary to save the life of the mother. The current GOP platform advocates a ban with no exceptions.

In 1992, at the last Republican convention in Houston, Wilson urged abortion rights supporters to drop their fight against the party’s platform when it appeared to be a lost cause that was hurting President Bush’s reelection chances. At the same time, he fortified his troops by promising: “I fully expect and intend that this will be the last Republican platform that contains this plank.”

This time around, the political calculations around the abortion fight remain unclear. A divisive battle at the convention could hurt Dole. On the other hand, a move to moderate the party’s position might help him with some voters, although Dole would have to worry about alienating the antiabortion voters who are among the party’s most active supporters.

Wilson’s convention plans could put him in an awkward position with Dole because the governor is chairman of Dole’s presidential campaign in California.

Later in the day, Wilson and Dole were scheduled to hold a joint news conference after meeting privately to discuss campaign strategy. After Wilson’s abortion comments were broadcast, however, Dole skipped the appearance.

Early last year, the governor restated his commitment to the platform change by saying in an interview with The Times that he will participate even if it risks a fight at the convention.

A few months later, however, after launching his own presidential bid, Wilson drew fire from abortion rights groups when his campaign manager said of the existing GOP platform: “We’ll let it go forward.”

Aides scrambled to clarify the remarks. But they confirmed that Wilson planned to drop his opposition to the platform if it posed a risk to the Republican nominee.

On Monday, Wilson repeatedly declined to provide details about how he will conduct himself at the convention or how far he will go to win his cause.

Asked whether he will wage a fight, he said simply, “I expect that my involvement will be to meet with those who share my view and see if we are able, under the procedures, to remove the plank from the platform.”