John Rankin, president of the Theological Education Institute and Ann Stone, national director of Republicans for Choice, discussed the GOP's current platform on abortion in a debate last night.
Rankin, focusing on political issues, took the affirmative position regarding "Should the Republican Party Keep Its Pro-Life Plank?" while Stone, who emphasized theological issues, argued against it.
The debate ended in a draw.
Rankin and Stone will most likely never agree, said Government Professor Tom Nichols, who was moderating the debate.
The two Republican speakers said they recognized the need for change within the GOP platform regarding its antiabortion stance. By the end of the debate, the discussion had turned into a question of whether government should intervene in issues relating to abortion.
Stone, who said she is "antiabortion" but "pro-choice," said change should come through non-governmental programs.
She suggested the United States could reduce abortion rates if citizens would "build communities that support women and their families, eliminate barriers to adoption, encourage self-esteem and raise education levels."
Rankin also advocated change, but through the ratification of a pro-life amendment to the United States Constitution.
Rankin proposed the use of a nonbinding referendum asking U.S. citizens, "In biological terms, when does an individual human life begin?"
Rankin said he strongly believed approximately 80 percent of Americans would answer the question of "When does life begin?" with "at conception."
Such a consensus would affirm the government's right to protect the fetus' unalienable human rights of life, liberty and property, he argued.
Rankin said these rights directly stemmed from the rights of God, life, choice, and sex found in the Bible's Book of Genesis. He said people must be born before they can appreciate the luxury of "choice."
Rankin said he is "trying to win a theological revolution rather than a political one."
Stone said it is the political issue that interests her. She said the current Republican party platform "doesn't serve the party, doesn't serve its principles, doesn't serve it's members and certainly doesn't win elections."
Stone said in every survey done, the statistics repeatedly show 68 to 72 percent of those surveyed said they do not want government involved in the abortion decision.
She said the majority of these people are against abortion.
After both parties presented their arguments, they had a conversational exchange, then the forum was opened up to 45 minutes of questions from the audience.
A member of the audience asked Stone if she thought such issues as sodomy and suicide be ignored because Stone said the government should not address abortion.
Stone said she thinks government should also remove itself from such issues as sodomy and suicide.
Rankin said he disagreed. Abortion is "the ultimate male chauvinism," he said. Regarding the issue of excepting antiabortion laws for women who are victims of rape and incest he responded, "does human abortion un-rape the women?"
Rankin said "until we define what life is, we cannot define what choice is."
Stone, stating that she believes human life begins at 24 weeks, confirmed that the two hold different definitions of life and thus they will probably always hold different definitions of "choice."
The debate was held in 105 Dartmouth Hall and sponsored by the Coalition for Life at Dartmouth.
