Forget the Alamo, Texas Battle Is Over Abortion

Fueling the moral debate that threatens to cleave the Republican Party, religious conservatives flexed their muscle at Texas’ GOP convention on Saturday, approving a rigid antiabortion platform plank and noisily condemning one of their own U.S. senators for her support of abortion rights.

Bob Dole, the likely Republican presidential nominee, has tried to soften the GOP’s position on the divisive issue, proposing that a “declaration of tolerance” for abortion-rights supporters be added to the party’s national platform. But this weekend, Republicans in the Lone Star State showed themselves to be unyielding, vowing a showdown at the national convention in San Diego unless Dole adopts a stauncher antiabortion stance.

“This sends a very clear signal to Sen. Dole . . . that there is a rogue elephant from Texas on the way,” said Bill Price, president of Texans United for Life, which boasted that at least 85 of the state’s 123 delegates had signed strict antiabortion pledges.

In their effort to squelch any waffling on the issue, antiabortion activists had pledged to stage a coup against Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, charging that her support for restricted abortion rights undermined the GOP platform. For days, they had urged delegates to oust her from a slate of at-large delegates to the national convention in August, plastering the convention site at the Alamodome with cards that proclaimed: “No way, Kay! Compromise means defeat.”

When a voice vote on the issue was finally called Saturday, the 15,000 conventioneers sounded evenly divided. Hoping to avoid an internecine squabble, state party Chairman Tom Pauken quickly ruled that a slate including Hutchison had been approved. That triggered a chorus of jeers from the floor, with antiabortion activists shouting for a more precise tally.

A head count still appeared close but was again decided in Hutchison’s favor.

Hutchison, who spoke to the convention Friday, tried to downplay the dispute, calling it a “kamikaze mission” by a tiny faction “not in the mainstream of our party.”

She was backed by her Republican colleague, Sen. Phil Gramm, who had threatened to withdraw from the slate of delegates if Hutchison was voted off.

Even though Hutchison survived the attack, it was clear that the activist core of the Texas GOP is further to the right on the abortion debate than a number of Republicans, including Dole.

Indeed, the convention was far from a pro-Dole rally, with the crowd lavishing warm welcomes on two of his most conservative challengers during the GOP primaries: Alan Keyes, who won widespread popular support here as a vice presidential candidate, and Patrick J. Buchanan.

Republicans have been trying to smooth over the abortion issue ever since Dole proposed his “declaration of tolerance” earlier this month. He did not initially specify where in the platform such a declaration would appear--a move that helped win support from many antiabortion activists, who assumed the language would be included in the platform’s preamble. But Dole, ignoring some advisors, reignited the issue by urging that the declaration be included in the abortion plank.

“It’s the pro-life issue that has made this the majority party,” said Kerry Lundelius, an antiabortion activist from Fort Worth. “Bob Dole is wrong on this issue.”

Rather than moving toward tolerance on the abortion issue, the Texas Republicans decided to scrap a 1994 provision that made exceptions in cases where the mother’s life is endangered, replacing it with a statement rejecting abortion regardless of the circumstances.

Some party officials later argued that the new language was meant only to jibe with the national GOP platform, not to eliminate exceptions for the mother’s life.