Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 24, 1990 TAG: 9004240563
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A/2 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Ann Stone, a conservative activist, said Monday that Republicans for Choice has recruited more than 200 GOP officeholders as part of its drive to elect abortion-rights delegates to the 1992 convention.
"Our party will face defeat in the 1990 congressional and gubernatorial elections," said a prospectus mailed by the group to Republicans around the country. "President Bush's re-election could even be endangered."
Stone, who described herself as "pro-choice and pro-life," said she had no expectation that the man expected to dominate the 1992 convention, Bush, will change his position.
"Our party is a big tent and George Bush and all of us sit under it," she said.
If the drive fails to get the convention to put abortion-rights language in the 1992 platform, Stone said she would try to drop abortion from the document.
The 1988 platform said that "the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed. We therefore reaffirm our support for a human life amendment to the Constitution, and we endorse legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment's protections apply to unborn children. We oppose the use of public funds for organizations which advocate or support abortion."
But in the 1989 elections, held months after the Supreme Court gave states far greater leeway to place restrictions on abortion, Republicans lost races for governor of Virginia and New Jersey, contests in which the GOP candidates were attacked for their anti-abortion views.
Stone, who said she personally opposes abortion, contended that the party would suffer far greater losses this year and in 1992 unless it changes its position.
"The 1988 Republican National Platform included a right-to-life plank that we believe is not representative of a majority of Republicans or most Americans," said the group's prospectus.
The document went on to cite the 1989 elections as proof that "this position on abortion is dangerous politically and will cost us the votes of many traditional Republicans as well as the vote of a majority of young voters 18 to 35."
The three goals cited were to fight to change the platform, elect abortion-rights advocates as delegates and to "fight efforts within the Republican National Committee or within state Republican committees to force our party to oppose the option of legal abortion."
by CNB