GOP Platform on Abortion

Bob Dole wants to add a few words to the GOP plank to make it more tolerant of the pro-choice position (“Dole Backs Ban on Abortion but Urges Tolerance,” June 7).

Where is there tolerance in a position that wants to completely outlaw abortion? I do not think that abortion is the taking of an innocent life. I feel it should be readily available to women who choose it. How is a constitutional amendment to ban abortion in any circumstance tolerant of this position? A few words do not change the fundamental goal of the Republican plank.

True tolerance is respecting the right of a woman not to have an abortion, or to have one if her conscience so allows. Here is one more pro-choice voter for Clinton.

STEVE JACOBSOHN

Los Angeles

* Dole will split the Republican Party completely if he tries to change the pro-life plank. It has not changed since 1980--and only a handful of pro-abortion liberal Republicans (like Govs. Christine Todd Whitman and Pete Wilson) are demanding a change.

The Republican Party is pro-life! Most Americans are pro-life--and Dole must pick a pro-life running mate. Otherwise, he will devastate the core of his support.

There are estimated to be at least 40 million evangelical Christians--and most of them are pro-life. This is the largest single voting bloc in the nation!

FRANK DREWE

Glendale

* It shouldn’t matter whether I am pro-choice or antiabortion. I am a thinking individual and should be allowed to make my own choices based on facts, information and circumstances.

Destruction of anything living (fetus or environment) is sad and people must live with their decisions (no matter what they are). But I do not want the government or you to make my moral decisions for me.

ANNE MIRANDA

Morro Bay