THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, June 11, 1996 TAG: 9606110351
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: THE WASHINGTON POST
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: 38 lines
Barely 96 hours after he had seemingly won a truce among warring Republican factions on the abortion issue, Senate Majority Leader Robert J. Dole unexpectedly reopened the battle Monday, saying he wanted language on tolerance of other views linked specifically to the party's anti-abortion plank.
Abortion opponents in the GOP immediately vowed to fight any such move at the Republican National Convention in San Diego in August. They said they would accept a general declaration of tolerance for opposing views, if placed in the preamble to the platform where it would be applicable to all issues. But they said Dole's formulation amounted to watering down the party's call for a constitutional amendment to outlaw abortion and was unacceptable.
The latest brouhaha was triggered by Dole's response to a question on CNN's Inside Politics. After saying he thought his formal statement on the issue Thursday, which was welcomed by both sides of the abortion debate, meant the issue ``has been resolved,'' Dole added:
``It's not negotiable. It's the decision. And that's going to be in the plank. And it's probably going to be in the abortion plank, not in the preamble. It seems to me if you want to make it clear to the people out there that we're tolerant, you make it (there). This is a moral issue. It's not like all the other things in the platform, and it ought to be right up there where people can see it.''
Anti-abortion activists made it clear that the location of the statement is a matter of great importance to them. ``To single out abortion as the issue where you validate disagreements is to say this isn't as important as everything else,'' said Gary Bauer, head of the Family Research Council. ``For many, it's the only thing that matters.''
Ralph Reed, executive director of the Christian Coalition, said he expected the latest Dole position to produce a battle in the platform committee. by CNB