ABORTION VOTE BY GOP SOUGHT

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, January 31, 1992                   TAG: 9201310149
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short
ABORTION VOTE BY GOP SOUGHT
Republicans asked party leaders Thursday to allow a floor vote at the national convention in August on a platform plank advocating abortion rights.
"It must be recognized that the Republican Party's current platform reflects views held by only a minority of Republicans," said Mary Dent Crisp, chairwoman of the National Republican Coalition for Choice.
Her request for a floor vote came in a letter to GOP national Chairman Clayton Yeutter and Sen. Don Nickles, R-Okla., platform committee chairman.
The Republican platform, reflecting President Bush's views, calls for a constitutional amendment to ban abortion.
Crisp and Rep. Nancy Johnson, R-Conn., representing Republicans for Choice, told a news conference they want the platform to say that Republicans hold diverse, deeply felt and valid beliefs on abortion.
Crisp, a former co-chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, said abortion opponents might try to intimidate delegates.
"The anti-choice minority within my party is big enough to bully; are they democratic enough to debate?" she asked.
Party officials most likely will try to vent the abortion issue in platform hearings and head off a potentially embarrassing floor fight on national television.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB