Gov. Weld Urges Gop To Soften Abortion Plank He Claims Seeking Ban Will Hurt Party Without Helping Babies
Massachusetts Gov. William F. Weld has put his oft-stated views on abortion into writing, urging the Republican Party’s convention platform committee to adopt a plank with a more tolerant view of abortion rights.
In a three-page statement to the committee, which is convening next week in San Diego, Weld said that the current plank proposing a constitutional amendment to ban abortions is political suicide for the GOP.
The Republican National Convention is being held in San Diego from Aug. 12-15.
“As a practical matter, a constitutional amendment will not end abortions,” Weld wrote Friday. “As a political matter, the current abortion plank will alienate our party from many Americans.”
Meanwhile, some New York City delegates to the GOP convention are asking Weld and five other governors who support abortion rights to use their power to remove the anti-abortion plank from the party’s platform.
The letter urges the governors to use “every reasonable means possible to assure that our party in its platform reflects the consensus position of our rank-and-file.”
The letter was also sent to Govs. Pete Wilson of California, Christie Todd Whitman of New Jersey, Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania, George Pataki of New York and Lincoln Almond of Rhode Island.
The letter was signed by Assemblyman John Ravitz, New York City Council member Andrew Eristoff, state Sen. Roy Goodman, Manhattan Republican Party chairman Peter Hein, and Robert Price, former New York City deputy mayor.
They said they will take the issue to the floor of the convention if it is not solved in the platform committee.
Weld, who is also vowing a floor fight at the convention if the plank is not changed, repeated the three alternatives he sees for the party.
One is to remove the plank altogether. Another is to substitute “more neutral language.” A third, according to Weld, would be to offer equal time to both the anti-abortion and abortion rights points of view.