Dole, Wilson Make Deal to Avoid Fight on Abortion

Gov. Pete Wilson and GOP presidential candidate Bob Dole on Wednesday negotiated an agreement on abortion language in the Republican platform designed to head off a high-profile floor fight at the party’s national convention.

The agreement, hailed by both sides of the contentious issue, maintains the party’s strong support of a constitutional ban on abortion, but adds a minority attachment to the platform that expresses the views of abortion-rights supporters.

“I wish to thank Sen. Dole for making good on what has been a consistent view on his part--that this should be an inclusive party and it should be an inclusive convention,” said Wilson, who negotiated the agreement with the Dole campaign from his hotel suite near the convention site. “We are satisfied.”

Abortion opponents considered the agreement inconsequential. Angela “Bay” Buchanan, the sister and campaign manager for Dole rival Patrick J. Buchanan, indicated that the minority language wasn’t worth a challenge.

“All they are talking about is listing amendments that were defeated--like in the Congressional Record,” she said. “That is fine with us. We’d wish they’d also list the vote to see how minority a view this is.”

The platform committee adjourned Wednesday after adopting the planks it will forward to the convention delegates next week. Beyond abortion, the committee also endorsed California’s controversial Proposition 209, calling for an end to ethnic and gender-based affirmative action programs in government. And it adopted a controversial provision to deny automatic American citizenship to U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants. That plank also calls for the denial of citizenship to the children of short-term U.S. residents.

The pro-abortion-rights language, which will be presented to convention delegates along with the rest of the platform on Monday, will include three proposals intended to soften the party’s call for a ban on abortion. The proposals were overwhelmingly rejected by the platform committee earlier this week.

As part of its action, the committee stripped the platform of a Dole submission calling for a statement declaring “tolerance” within the GOP for conflicting views on abortion and other issues.

The votes prompted opponents of abortion rights to declare victory.

Even with Wednesday’s agreement, the potential for disruption on the convention floor still exists because the document will now contain controversial language from both sides of the issue. But key leaders from the disputing factions predicted the compromise will allow smooth adoption of the platform.

“I think it’s still a minority view,” said Ralph Reed, executive director of the Christian Coalition. “There’s a pro-abortion party and a pro-life party. The Democrats are the pro-abortion party. The Republicans are the pro-life party. Both parties have minority views. In the Republican Party, the pro-abortion, pro-choice view is still very much in the minority.”

But sparring continued in the hallways outside of the platform committee meeting Wednesday. Jennifer Stockman, vice chairwoman of the Republican Coalition for Choice, strongly disputed Bay Buchanan’s take on the agreement.

“It serves Bay’s purpose to say that,” she said. “She just lost a big battle. She’s just trying to spin. This is a big victory, and she’s going to have to learn to live with it.”

Ann Stone, head of Republicans for Choice, qualified her support for the agreement. Speaking about her membership’s reaction, Stone said, “I don’t know that this is going to appease them.”

She said, however, that it signals a “more hospitable” environment at the convention for supporters of abortion rights. And she said it will encourage abortion-rights supporters to “gear up toward the year 2000.”

The agreement was reached by incorporating a unique twist in Republican Party rules, essentially circumventing the platform committee. Under the rules, committee Chairman Henry J. Hyde, a congressman from Illinois and outspoken opponent of abortion rights, will use his prerogative to attach the minority language to the platform. It will not be considered by the committee, which adjourned Wednesday evening.

“Fine with me,” Hyde said Wednesday. “I’ve got no problem. That makes the platform a resource document. It shows everything we considered and defeated. This party is pro-life.”

During a press conference after the agreement was announced, Wilson emphasized that the language is not a minority “report” but a minority “view.”

He said the distinction will be important for parliamentary reasons when the platform reaches the floor. He said there would be no separate vote on a minority view--unless antiabortion forces chose to wage a battle on the convention floor--while a minority report would have required debate and a separate vote.

The minority language will include Dole’s call for tolerance. Another of the proposals, previously adopted by the state Republican Party in Wyoming, calls for an inclusive GOP. A third, written by Wilson, calls on unwed couples to practice abstinence or contraception and for government to adopt policies that discourage unwanted pregnancy.

Wilson had offered his proposal as a substitute for the platform’s existing antiabortion language. At the time, he said it was a practical alternative for abortion opponents because a constitutional amendment to ban the practice is politically unrealistic.

“I fully expect that they will be adopted” without a floor fight, Wilson said. “What we asked for yesterday was accommodation for what we believe is a minority view in the hall but a majority outside,” Wilson said, drawing cheers and applause from abortion-rights supporters who listened to his press briefing. “What we were seeking, we obtained, and that is an expression that there is a minority view.”

The agreement appears to represent the end of a dangerous high-wire act for Dole as well as a group of Republican governors. Their push to achieve a change in the platform language appeared to be uphill, especially after the overwhelming platform committee vote against their views. As a result, they faced the prospect of forcing the first convention floor fight in more than 30 years, with the likelihood being that they would lose and cause political damage to their party’s nominee.

Dole, meanwhile, has worked this week to divert attention from the differences within the party, focusing instead on his just-released economic plan. Avoiding a convention battle could clear the way for Dole to discuss that plan as well as the vice-presidential choice he is scheduled to announce on Saturday.

The only comment about the agreement from Dole’s campaign came Wednesday from Paul Manafort, the candidate’s convention coordinator. “I think what we’ve done today assures a very successful convention next week,” he said.

Wilson’s push for abortion-rights language was done in cooperation with Massachusetts Gov. William F. Weld and in consultation with New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman. New York Gov. George Pataki had also expressed his disappointment in the platform committee’s action, indicating that he and his state’s delegates might join the convention fight.

Wilson talked late Tuesday night with Dole and his campaign manager, Scott Reed. By Wednesday morning, Dole’s political director, Jill Hanson, was in Wilson’s hotel suite for several hours of negotiations. The meetings were also attended by Susan Cullman, head of the Republican Coalition for Choice.

Wilson talked with Weld several times by phone. He said he also reached Sen. Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine), an outspoken advocate of the abortion-rights language, and secured her support for the agreement. Wilson said he was unable to reach Whitman but that he expected the plan would ease her concerns.

Without the boost from Dole, the abortion-rights supporters faced an uphill battle in gaining access to the convention. To take their fight to the convention floor, Wilson and his allies needed the support of either 27 members of the 107-member platform committee or a majority of six state delegations.

Wilson and Weld had both indicated their optimism about getting support from six delegations. But even then, their chances of success on the convention floor were not good.

Now the platform will still go to a vote of the convention delegates. But with support from leaders on both sides, easy passage appeared likely.

Wilson was joined at his press conference by Cullman, who said that “as a pro-choice woman and Republican, I am delighted” that her credentials as a party member no longer would be questioned because of her position on the abortion issue.

“This is a first step,” she added. “The door has been opened.” But she said abortion-rights advocates must gear up for the next national convention to see if they can win elimination of the abortion language from the party’s charter altogether.

“At this time, this is the best we could do,” she said.

Times staff writer Tony Perry contributed to this story.