Pro-Life Republicans Bash Party Resolution

Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., a strong opponent of abortion, came out Monday against a Republican Party resolution that would deny money to candidates who do not support a ban on a controversial late-term abortion procedure.

The opposition of Hyde, and that of Rep. Charles Canady, R-Fla., the chief sponsor of the House bill to ban the medical procedure that opponents call partial-birth abortion, dooms the resolution in the eyes of many Republicans.

“Hyde and Canady together is, like, kaboom,” a Republican operative said. “They’re the most respected pro-life advocates in the Congress.”

The Republican National Committee is to vote on the resolution on Friday at its winter meeting in California. The resolution is being offered by Tim Lambert, a Republican national committeeman from Texas, who believes that the abortion procedure is so heinous that the party is morally obligated to oppose it at every turn.

In a letter to RNC Chairman Jim Nicholson, Hyde and Canady warned that denying money to certain Republicans could cost the party its majority in Congress. “If we lose our majority, it will be the death knell of pro-life legislation for as long as the Democrats are in power,” they wrote.