Perry Making Abortion A Centerpiece Of 2010 Primary Campaign

By proclaiming his unwavering support for “Choose Life” license plates–an issue that has failed to pass the Legislature five times in the last five sessions–Texas Governor Rick Perry has sent the clear signal that he intends to make abortion a centerpiece of his 2010 primary race against U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison.

In announcing his support for the legislation to create the plates, he sent a clear message to the Texas GOP primary voters–a massive number of which are evangelical Christians:

“If there’s been a more pro-life governor in Texas history, I’d be hard-pressed to think who it was,” he said in the full glare of TV lights.

He was flanked on both sides by anti-abortion leaders. The news conference room at the Capitol was filled with abortion opponents, church officials and supporters of crisis-pregnancy centers wearing buttons extolling their cause.

“The work we have done here collectively together to make this a state that basically says come live in Texas, we protect the innocent — that’s a pretty strong message,” the Republican governor said.

For Perry, this is a wise move on an issue that has been a bone of contention between Hutchison and many in her party for more than a decade. In 1996, right-wing evangelical Christian forces in the Republican Party of Texas raised such an unholy Hell over Hutchison’s “moderate” abortion stance in an attempt to prevent her from being a delegate to the Republican National Convention that it made it into the pages of The Washington Post. From the June 22, 1996 WaPo (sorry, no link):

Leading Texas Republicans joined with Christian conservatives today in an effort to defeat an attempt by antiabortion forces to deny Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison a place on the state’s delegation to the Republican National Convention.

Antiabortion forces in the state have made the selection of Hutchison, a moderate on abortion by Republican standards, into a symbolic test of the party’s commitment to oppose abortion.

By the end of today’s session of the Texas state Republican convention, Hutchison appeared to have a good shot at winning a seat in Saturday’s vote, but delegate slates of less well-known candidates selected by Robert J. Dole’s campaign appeared headed toward defeat.

The fight here is not the now familiar battle between Christian right and traditional party leaders that plagued the GOP from the formation of the Moral Majority in the late 1970s through the early 1990s. Instead, it is part of a larger struggle between a new establishment of traditional party leaders and experienced religious conservative leaders on one side, and an ideological right that adamantly rejects compromise on the issue of abortion, on the other.

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She opposed, however, the abortion rights bill known as the Freedom of Choice Act, and she favors some restrictions, including parental notification. In addition, she is against federal funding of abortion in most cases.

On another abortion controversy that has split the party — where a declaration of tolerance should be placed in the Republican platform — she is neutral.

“I don’t care where it is; I don’t care if it is in the preamble, or in the margins, or on a tree, or in a bottle in a jar that is sailing across the Jordan River,” she said today.

The antiabortion effort at the convention has been led by Bill Price, president of Texans for Life.

“When it comes to killing unborn children, there really is no room for tolerance. This convention has decided to stand up and say ‘We’re not sending pro-aborts to San Diego to try to change our party platform,’ ” Price told an antiabortion meeting here Thursday.

“It is clear that we must row our own boat. We can’t depend upon the politicians to protect our babies,” he said.

Price has the advantage of working with an intensely conservative constituency of 7,000-plus state convention delegates, who two years ago approved language that did not permit abortion in cases of rape or incest. This weekend, the delegates are expected to approve language that would eliminate the last remaining exception to protect the life of the mother.

“We’re saying that the child has a fundamental right to life, period. We don’t believe in killing either one of them,” said Al Clements, chairman of the Texas platform committee.

That year, Christian Conservatives took control of the state’s delegation to the RNC, and even threatened to start a floor fight at the RNC if someone like Colin Powell were to be Bob Dole’s vice presidential pick.

In spite of the fact that the Party has supported Hutchison in her Senate bids since then, this remains a gaping wound in the Texas GOP that hasn’t healed. And, there is little if any evidence to suggest that Christian Conservatives have seriously changed their position on Hutchison in the nearly 13 years since the bloodletting at the 1996 convention.

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