Nevada GOP votes to pull anti-abortion plank out of platform

Delegates to the Republican State Convention voted narrowly Saturday to remove all mention of abortion from their platform.

The original proposal by the platform committee supported "the unalienable right to life for every person from conception to a natural death."

But a group of women delegates, primarily from Washoe County, headed the drive to get rid of it, arguing that the abortion issue costs the party too many votes from moderates who won't take that strong of a stand.

"Why do you want to put a big red stop sign in our platform?" asked Marilyn Brainard of Washoe.

John Wagner of Carson City said he was concerned about the swing vote that will decide the presidential election in November.

Ann Thompson of Washoe said that doesn't mean the opponents favor abortions. She said they almost all oppose abortions but believe it shouldn't be a partisan political issue.

But supporters of an anti-abortion plank including Judy Holland and Neil Holland of Washoe argued the party shouldn't back away from what's right just to get a few more supporters. They said the GOP should take a stand on behalf of "those who cannot defend themselves, the unborn."

And Mike Weber of Reno said the argument that social issues like abortion shouldn't be in the platform doesn't hold water.

"Every issue in law is a moral issue," he said. "To say because abortion is an emotionally driven issue it shouldn't be in the platform doesn't make sense."

The final vote was 149 for the anti-abortion plank and 166 against - which removed it from the platform altogether.

But the following plank to oppose same sex marriages was overwhelmingly approved by the delegates, who argued that marriage should exist only between a man and a woman because that is "the pattern that God set forth on this earth."

Gavin Patzer of Lyon County said allowing same sex marriages would just open the door to perversion.

"There would be pedophiles standing in line to marry children," he said. "People will want to marry their pets and more."