ASHINGTON - Hoping to stifle a divisive battle over abortion, the Republican Party and George W. Bush are erecting a series of barriers to prevent public discussion at party platform hearings.
The Bush campaign has decided that abortion, one of the most contentious issues facing the party, will not be on the agenda at the two policy forums held in advance of writing the platform. Moreover, the Bush campaign told the GOP platform committee that the abortion plank is to be discussed only in private meetings that exclude the media.
The plank calls for a constitutional amendment banning all abortions, with no exceptions for rape, incest or the life of the mother. Bush, the Texas governor and presumptive Republican presidential nominee, already has said he won't support changing a single word of the abortion plank, even though it is stricter than his own view on abortion.
''They do not want the issue to be aired in public,'' said Ann Stone, head of Republicans for Choice, which advocates abortion rights. After meeting this week with the chairman of the Republican platform committee, Governor Tommy Thompson of Wisconsin, who opposes abortion, Stone said, ''They do not want this to become the focus.''
Stone's experience sheds light on the effort by Bush and his lieutenants to shut out public debate about abortion prior to the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia, July 31 through Aug. 3. Similarly, the party does not want the platform hearings to focus on gun control, the environment, or other issues on which many Republicans disagree.
Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer acknowledged that abortion is not on the agenda: ''Platform hearings are designed to focus on issues that people care about most - Social Security, education, and so on. You always want to have a unified convention.''
On Monday, the leaders of two GOP groups that favor abortion rights went to Wisconsin to meet with Thompson, whom Bush tapped to chair the platform committee. Stone and Susan Cullman, who co-chairs the Republican Pro-Choice Coalition, said Thompson told them the abortion plank would be unchanged, and any discussion of the matter should be in private. Thompson also said abortion would not be on the agenda at the platform committee's two public policy forums, to be held later this month in Dayton, Ohio, and Billings, Mont.
Thompson declined a request for an interview.
While the GOP effort to shut out an abortion debate may limit controversy at the convention, it could also be a boon to Democrats, who believe that winning over women who favor abortion rights will be a key to victory in November. Moreover, Bush's handling of the issue has prompted concern among Republican leaders who favor abortion rights and fear that Bush's stance might cost him support among women that he needs to win the general election.
''In the past, we have been viewed as inflexible and intolerant,'' said Senator Olympia Snowe, the Maine Republican who favors abortion rights. ''We are not a monolithic party, and therefore the platform should be more reflective that this is one issue that divides us,'' Snowe said. ''Making adjustments in the platform would send a very important message that reflects an inclusive tone, that we are not inflexibly ideological.''
Snowe said she and five other Republican senators who favor abortion rights wrote to Bush a month ago, but she has received no reply. Snowe stressed that she isn't asking to change the platform to support abortion rights, but instead make it neutral or include a statement declaring that the party has differing views.
Indeed, in 1996, Republican nominee Bob Dole tried to mute the issue by suggesting that the platform include a ''declaration of tolerance'' for people who did not share his opposition to abortion. ''This is not compromise. It is civility,'' Dole said at the time.
But the platform committee rejected Dole's proposal, a move that helped create what Cullman called a ''gender chasm'' in the general election.
Cullman's group recently began a campaign to try to persuade Bush to eliminate the abortion plank, sending tens of thousands of postcards to Republicans emblazoned with the words, ''Warning, GOP pothole ahead. Take abortion out of politics.''
Stone's group is trying to hit closer to home. It notes that Bush's mother, Barbara, said last December in an ABC-TV interview that abortion should not be in the platform. ''I believe in state's rights, and I don't think it should be a national platform,'' Barbara Bush said. ''There's nothing a president can do about it anyway, in all honesty. ... The law is there.''
Using that quote, Republicans for Choice is preparing a radio ad that says, ''George W. and the entire Republican Party should listen to his mama.''
Bush, who has been seeking to move toward the middle of the political spectrum for months and is running as a ''compassionate conservative,'' is basing his general election strategy largely on the hope that he can do much better among women than other Republican nominees.
As a result, there has been speculation for months that Bush might agree to weaken the GOP abortion plank because it is much stricter than his own view. The current GOP stance calls for a constitutional amendment banning all abortions. Bush would allow abortions in cases of rape, incest, or where the mother's life is in danger. The plank also calls for an antiabortion litmus test for judges, which Bush has opposed.
But during the South Carolina primary in February, when Bush was fervently wooing voters who oppose abortion rights, the Texas governor said he wouldn't change the plank.
''I think we need to keep the platform the way it is. This is a pro-life party. We need to say, `life is precious' and that's what our platform refers to. And that's why we need to leave it the same,'' Bush said. Fleischer, the Bush spokesman, said this week that Bush stands by that pledge.
While platforms are intended to show the direction of the party, they are hardly iron-clad directives. Bush spokesman Ray Sullivan, asked whether the governor believes he can ignore parts of the platform, responded, ''I'm not going to say that. The governor's position on abortion is clear. The Republican platform on abortion is part of a grassroots document that is a statement of broader Republican Party principles.''
Bush's stance on the platform enables him to honor his pledge to the party's social conservatives while also putting on the record to moderate voters that he shouldn't be held to every word of it.
Bush, indeed, hasn't ruled out picking a running mate who favors abortion rights. He is considering pro-choice governors Thomas Ridge of Pennsylvania and Christine Todd Whitman of New Jersey.
If Bush does pick a supporter of abortion rights as his vice presidential choice, the abortion issue could erupt on the convention floor. Opponents could fight to keep the plank, while those favoring abortion rights could try to remove it. Under party rules, a platform issue can be brought to the convention floor by a vote of a majority of delegates from any six states.
