GOP moderates rally to oust anti-abortion plank from platform

CARSON CITY, Nev. - Nevada Republicans defeated an anti-abortion plank that had sharply divided the party as convention delegates moved toward approval Saturday of an otherwise staunchly conservative state platform.

From support of school prayer in schools to a ban on gays in the military and same-sex marriages, conservative hardliners prevailed on most of the hotly contested social issues debated at the state GOP convention.

The only other significant victory for moderates came when they amended a plank that called for opposition to the Endangered Species Act, instead urging "serious reform" of the wildlife protection law.

Other parts of the platform range from a declaration of state supremacy over federal lands in Nevada, to withdrawing from the United Nations and keeping fluoride out of public water supplies.

Nevada's GOP also went on record against the Occupational Safety and Health Administration from implementing new ergonomics regulations, a plank added by those fearful government inspectors will enter their home offices.

"We have enough jack-booted thugs in the federal government as it is," said Marvin Wakefield of Carson City.

The most contentious fight was over whether to include any mention of abortion in the platform at all after Gov. Kenny Guinn and other GOP leaders on Friday had urged delegates to put their differences aside and make the party more inclusive.

On a 166-149 vote, delegates defeated the plank urging support of the "unalienable right to life for every person from conception to a natural death." That means the platform is silent on the topic.

"This finally says that Republicans don't want abortion in politics," said Ann Thompson of Reno, state chairman of Republicans for Pro-Choice.

"It's not that we believe in abortion. We just want it out of politics. It is dividing the party," she said.

John Wagner of Carson City warned that the move would cost Republican candidates critical votes from anti-abortionists.

"If we don't have it in there, we are going to lose the base of voters we have," he said.

Cathy Mclean of Reno said everyone in Nevada "whether they are pro-choice or pro-life" should be welcome as a Republican.

"We are supposed to be a party of inclusion," she said.

But Louise Kopf of Las Vegas said, "The Republican Party is the party of inclusion - we should include the unborn."

Moderates failed in a similar attempt to turn back a plank opposing same-sex marriages.

"God said man should not lie with man and woman should not lie with woman," said Gene Munnings of Carson City.

"The homosexuals have already started a state-by-state campaign to force states to recognize their marriages," added Katherin Lamb of Storey County.

Gavin Patzer of Lyon Count said God defined marriage and that man's attempts to change that definition was a start down a slippery slope.

"Pedophiles will be standing in line to marry children. People will want to marry their pets and on and on," Patzer said.

Delegates passed a series of platform planks critical of government regulation of environment, advocating termination of the Columbia River Basin Ecosystem Management Project that affects part of northern Nevada and opposing the Clinton administration's American Rivers Heritage System Initiative.

"This is one more instance where the federal government is trying to regulate things by bypassing Congress - one more way to absorb power of the states and the rights to own our land," Mary Litwin of Clark County said.

Ralph McMullen of Elko County said the issue is "not protection, but control.

"Most of us in Nevada want to protect the environment, but we don't want the federal government coming in and telling us how to do it," he said.

Dorothy Kosich of Washoe County led the successful effort to amend the plank opposing the Endangered Species Act so as to instead urge serious reforms.

"It's a miracle," she said after the vote, which did not include a formal tally.

Kosich said she works in the mining industry, "I'm not even an environmentalist."

"But if we go on record opposing the Endangered Species Act ... we will increasingly make ourselves look like we are not supportive of the environment. I'm not so sure that is such a wise move," she said.

"Richard Nixon, who was a Republican, was behind a lot of these environmental acts."

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