GOP Abortion Rights Backers Win Brief Victory at Convention

BURLINGAME — California Republican abortion rights supporters won a short-lived victory Saturday in their attempt to eliminate the anti-abortion plank from the national Republican Party platform.

The Resolutions Committee of the California Republican Party voted 52 to 15 in favor of a measure proposing that the Republican National Convention platform be silent on abortion when the platform is adopted in San Diego in August.

But the vote was nullified minutes later when Resolutions Committee Chairman Michael De Manouel of Fresno declared that the committee lacked a quorum, shortly after at least six members hurriedly left the meeting room, the measure’s sponsor said.

The committee adjourned without official action on any of the 37 resolutions submitted to it.

The resolution, authored by Marjorie Van Nuis of San Diego, recognized the divisive potential of the abortion issue in the party. It declared that it was in the party’s best interest “to acknowledge the heartfelt convictions of all its members” on the abortion issue.

The measure noted Republicans’ differing beliefs, and resolved that the state GOP “should urge the Republican National Committee to adopt an ‘abortion-neutral’ platform in 1996.”

Van Nuis said that at least six members of the Resolutions Committee abruptly left the room after the vote, in an apparent attempt to deny the committee a quorum, and that when an attempt to establish a quorum was made by roll call, only 68 of the 144 committee members answered. It takes 73 to make a quorum, De Manouel said.

He overruled arguments that a quorum had existed when the vote was taken, and that it should be considered official, Van Nuis said. Reporters were barred from the meeting during the quorum debate.

Times staff writer Dave Lesher contributed to this story.