Abortion Not a Litmus Test for Dole VP Choice

Fanning the flames of the divisive Republican debate over abortion, Bob Dole said Monday he would seriously consider naming an abortion-rights supporter as vice president.

Whoever he picks as running mate should support some abortion restrictions, including parental notification for minors and legislation banning certain late-term abortions, Dole said in an interview on NBC-TV’s “Today” show.

But complete opposition to abortion will not be a litmus test, Dole said. Asked if his vice presidential candidate must share his own opposition to the controversial procedure, Dole replied tersely: “I don’t think so.”

“That may distress some people,” Dole said, “but I am the nominee. I need to make the choice, and I need to find someone who can be president. And we also need to win the election.”

Indeed, Dole’s remarks did distress several prominent conservative leaders, who already have been upset by his plans to amend the party’s antiabortion platform with a “declaration of tolerance” aimed at those who support abortion rights.

“The best way for a Republican to win the White House is by presenting a clear, unambiguous, conservative message on economic issues and social issues,” said Gary Bauer, head of American Renewal, a conservative lobbying group.

“I keep hearing this refrain that conservatives have no place to go” if Dole upsets them, Bauer added. “It seems to me that’s what moderates say just before they lose an election.”

“Pro-life individuals vote pro-life,” said Carmen Pate, spokeswoman of Concerned Women for America, a conservative advocacy group with about 600,000 members.

“Mr. Dole has certainly leaned toward pro-life stances in the past,” she added. But if he chose a running mate who favors abortion rights, Pate said, “it certainly would cause pro-lifers to stop and take a look and really rethink. That’s where the danger lies.”

Dole made his remarks during a promotional tour that he and his wife, Elizabeth Hanford Dole, are conducting to push the new edition of their dual biography. The tour continues in California this week.

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Dole has seemed to go out of his way in recent weeks to pick fights with the social conservatives in his party, particularly on the abortion issue, but also on subjects such as affirmative action. During a recent swing through California, Dole barnstormed for three days without publicly raising the affirmative action issue--one of considerable concern to California voters.

Dole’s actions have seemed aimed at walking a difficult tightrope--convincing moderate voters that he is not in thrall to party conservatives while still keeping the party’s conservative positions sufficiently intact to avoid alienating core Republican voters.

His remarks Monday seemed to follow that pattern. Notably, Dole pointed out that he does not mean that he will necessarily try to balance the Republican ticket with a supporter of abortion rights.

“Well, no,” he said, when asked about that. “I’m just suggesting they’re not going to be eliminated.”

Generally tight-lipped on the process of selecting a running mate, Dole said Monday that he would “hope” any vice presidential candidate would support a ban on certain late-term abortions that opponents call “partial-birth” procedures.

That could rule out two prominent governors--California’s Pete Wilson and New Jersey’s Christine Todd Whitman.

Whitman publicly supported President Clinton’s veto of a bill to ban the “partial-birth” abortions, saying in a Cable News Network interview shortly after the veto this spring that “I would have supported” Clinton’s decision because the technique “is only used in cases that are extreme medical emergencies. And I hate to have government determining for a doctor what procedures they can do when there really are good medical reasons to do something.”

Wilson has not spoken directly on the issue of the Clinton veto, said Sean Walsh, the governor’s spokesman. But Wilson believes that there can be “a medical reason why the life of the mother is in jeopardy, and there is a medical reason why the procedure should be performed,” Walsh said.

Some Dole advisors believe the candidate must find a way to appeal to social moderates to overcome Clinton’s lead in the polls. Picking a running mate who supports abortion rights would dramatically underline that appeal, they argue.

Others, however, have counseled Dole that picking an abortion-rights supporter would spark a huge fight at the party’s nominating convention next month in San Diego. Even if Dole won such a convention fight, the divisions would seriously set back his cause, those advisors argue.

At least a third of the state delegations to the convention are solidly dominated by abortion opponents, according to a recent survey of state party leaders by the Associated Press.

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On Monday, conservative activists called Dole’s comments both ill-timed and ill-advised. One conservative leader, speaking on condition that his name not be used, said that Dole took a completely wrong tack in the “Today” interview. When asked about litmus tests for vice president, he should have replied: “There’s only one person who has a litmus test, and he’s sitting in the White House,” this conservative leader said.

Mike Russell, spokesman for the Christian Coalition, said that he believes that Dole will ultimately make the “right decision” and choose a running mate who shares his own views against abortion, because surveys show that the social conservative movement is well organized and gaining strength.

In the interim, however, “Dole’s remarks today may cause some angst and confusion in the pro-life community,” Russell said.