Rep. Henry Hyde of Illinois, who has been a pro-life leader in Congress for two decades, and Rep. Charles Canady of Florida, author of the proposed ban on partial-birth abortions, said "it would be a serious tactical error and very unhelpful to our cause" to enact the proposed resolution at the GOP's winter meeting this week. "In politics, you win by addition, and we need every Republican vote we can muster to maintain our majority in the House and Senate," Hyde wrote to Republican National Committee Chairman James Nicholson. "The single most important thing we can do to protect the unborn is to maintain our majority!"
Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating also wrote to Nicholson on Monday, but he supported the resolution, citing his pro-life Catholic belief that such a move would be right politically and morally.