GOP makes quick work of platform despite abortion battle

By Ian Christopher McCaleb and Matt Smith/CNN

PHILADELPHIA (CNN) -- Republicans gathered in Philadelphia moved quickly Friday to approve their 2000 election year platform, with delegates debating the core document into the early evening amid new but ultimately unsuccessful attempts to soften the party's stance on abortion.

The platform hearings opened Friday morning at the Philadelphia Convention Center, close to the main convention site. Delegates split up into separate groups to mark up the 68-page draft platform, with each of the eight subcommittees focusing on a section of the document.

Previous conventions have taken several days to approve a platform: Hopes for an early consensus and a deference to presumed presidential nominee George W. Bush's positions on top issues helped speed the deliberations Friday. But as it has in previous years, the question of abortion rights again surfaced as a point of contention among delegates.

The most watched of the eight platform groups, the family subcommittee, rejected two attempts to amend the abortion plank. One of the amendments would have altered the platform language in a way that accepted the views of pro-choice Republicans, some of whom argued that their position was not respected within the party, and that the "personal" issue of abortion should be depoliticized and removed from the party's foundation document. The second would have struck the GOP's outright opposition to abortion in cases of rape, incest or when a woman's life is in danger.

The full GOP Platform Committee followed suit hours later, rejecting a further attempt by abortion rights advocates to remove the party's outright opposition to the procedure in cases of rape, incest or when a woman's life is endangered.

The committee also rejected efforts Friday evening to support anti-discriminatory laws protecting gays.

The abortion rights advocates had sworn they would try again to change the plank when the full 107-member Platform Committee convened Friday afternoon. They also vowed to raise their voices once more before the entire slate of delegates, when the convention gets under way next week.

Convention delegate Toni Casey of California, a sitting member of the family subcommittee who advanced the first amendment just minutes into the smaller body's deliberations, said the abortion rights wing of the party had been "silenced."

Speaking of the platform as written, Casey said, "I am strongly suggesting that this language does not reflect the opinions and beliefs held by thousands and thousands of pro-choice Republican men and women."

"We need a platform that underscores that abortion is a difficult, moral decision that has to be kept between a woman and her religion," Casey said, adding that the party's presumed presidential nominee, Texas Gov. George W. Bush, "has not said that members of this subcommittee cannot change this language in a way that builds upon the common ground we can all agree upon."

But Bush, through intermediaries, has made it clear to those running the platform proceedings that he does not want the language altered.

'This is round one'

The targeted section of the platform reads in part: "The unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life that cannot be infringed. ... Our purpose is to have legislative and judicial protection of that right against those who perform abortions."

Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Illinois -- the longtime chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, considered one of the most eloquent among anti-abortion activists -- spoke against the amendments as a member of the subcommittee.

"What about the unborn?" Hyde asked. "What about those who can't run away, who depend on our sense of humanity?"

Speaking later against the second amendment, Hyde said he supported abortion in cases where a woman's life would be placed in severe danger by a difficult pregnancy, but said he would not bend on rape or incest.

"The sins of the father should not be visited upon the unborn child," he said.

The first amendment failed on a 10-3 vote, with subcommittee Chairwoman Ellen Sauerbray of Maryland abstaining, and the second fell on a vote of 11-3. The votes prompted expressions of defiance from members of the abortion rights groups in attendance, many of whom spilled out into the hall to consider their next move.

"This is round one, there are many more to go," said Susan Cullman of the Republican Pro-Choice Coalition. "There's a new complexion this year," Cullman continued, saying she believed the state delegations to this year's conventions included many more pro-choice voters than in years past.

"People are tired of this issue interrupting their ability to do Republican work."

Janet McElligott of the group Republicans for Choice said, "We're not going anywhere, we're still Republicans." Should the activists' efforts fail this year, McElligott predicted streams of pro-choice Republicans would defect to the Democratic ticket.

Activists on the other side of the issue pointed to the platform's preamble to shoot down a large portion of their opposition's arguments. That section reads: "Diversity is a sign of strength, not of weakness, and so we welcome into our ranks all of those who hold differing positions."

"We do stand for other points of view," Sauerbray insisted.

Activist Phyllis Schlafly, representing the Republican National Coalition for Life, accused the pro-choice Republicans of making a stink Friday only to raise some extra money.

"They try to make a splash because they know you guys will write about them," she said to reporters. "Then they use that for fund-raising."

Platform seeks to reflect Bush approach

The work of all the subcommittees will be assimilated into the GOP's full 2000 platform, perhaps as early as Friday afternoon -- a speedy process compared to the sort of platform negotiations seen in conventions past. The assembled document will then be approved by the full platform committee, and later will be presented for the approval of the convention's full slate of delegates.

This year's platform, Republicans insist, should not end up open to the same sort of criticism that the 1996 document invited. That year's platform was attacked by GOP critics as sharply partisan, and representative of the party politics practiced by the conservative Republican majority in Congress, led by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Bush has sought to pull the party away from the sort of partisan political stances that could leave it open to such attacks.

Through allies in the party organization, much of Bush's call for "compassionate conservatism" has worked its way into the document in calls to provide the private sector with enough incentives -- perhaps through tax and regulatory breaks -- to bear much of the burden of many social services.

Several subcommittees focused on keeping the platform consistent with Bush's announced positions. The Government and Legal Reform group, for instance, adjusted language on campaign finance reform to allow Bush broader leeway to call for a ban on campaign contributions from corporations and labor unions.

The language delegates adopted only calls for stricter enforcement of campaign finance laws and highlights the legal questions raised by the Democratic Party's fund-raising practices in President Clinton's 1996 re-election effort. It dropped initial language that included special interest groups in complaints about "soft money," the unlimited contributions to political parties.

Indiana delegate James Bopp said the language would allow Bush to press for his proposals without coming into conflict with the party platform.

"I think we should write a platform that allows the nominee to argue his position," Bopp said.

The defense subcommittee, meanwhile, balked at the title of their section -- "A Distinctly American Internationalism." Some delegates preferred emphasizing the word "principle," while others wanted to de-emphasize "internationalism." Members suggested instead "A Principle of American Strength and Leadership."

Texas Gov. Bush is cheered during a campaign stop in Springdale, Arkansas on Friday.

"Principled leadership is something we've been lacking in this country," Hawaii delegate Janice Pechauer said.

But they had to run that by the subcommittee on international policy, which will be included in a section that combines both topics, and some were concerned about stepping on Bush's message.

"I am very uncomfortable messing around with a major statement our nominee is making," Kentucky delegate Ellen Williams, the panel's co-chair, said. "There are people far smarter than me who are writing this."

The technology and prosperity group sought a continued moratorium on taxing Internet transactions and added a call for a permanent ban on Internet access taxes. It also staked out a claim on the current economic boom that Democrats are counting on to boost their sagging fortunes in November. And at the behest of former Rep. Bob Livingston -- a member of Louisiana's delegation this year -- the subcommittee added language praising former presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush for their economic policies.

"Inspired by presidents Reagan and Bush, Republicans hammered into place the framework for today's prosperity," the amended platform states.

Other platform sections include conservation, agriculture and natural resources, which will focus to some degree on private property rights and land use issues; education and youth; retirement security and health care, which includes Bush's controversial proposal to allow individuals to invest portions of their Social Security payroll taxes into the stock market; and family and community, which took up the abortion language.