WASHINGTON – Although many Republican leaders have moved their party steadily to the right on abortion and family planning issues, Maine’s two Republican senators reiterated their strong commitment to protecting a woman’s right to choose Tuesday at a GOP pro-choice conference.

In separate keynote speeches to the conference, sponsored by the Republican Pro-Choice Coalition, Snowe and Collins each noted that while Republicans traditionally have stood for protecting personal liberty on many fronts, the GOP has increasingly identified itself with anti-abortion positions in recent decades.

“The Republican Party should be as synonymous with protecting a woman’s right to choose as the Democratic Party is with expanded government or raising taxes,” Collins said in a prepared speech for Tuesday evening at a reception held in her honor. “Unfortunately, however, the right of women to make choices about their reproductive health, the pro-choice position, is neither reflected in the party platform nor the public’s perception of the GOP.”

The Republican Party reaffirmed its opposition to abortion during its national convention in Philadelphia in 2000 when GOP delegates nominated President Bush as their candidate. Although the GOP platform of that year encouraged Congress to legislate against abortion and support the appointment of federal judges who oppose abortion rights, Bush has maintained that he favors a woman’s legal right to abortion in some cases. He also claims he will refrain from using political positions on abortion as a “litmus test” when naming judicial nominations.

At the opening of the conference Tuesday morning, Snowe said it was important for pro-choice Republicans to reach out and build alliances within the GOP and outside organizations concerned with protecting reproductive rights.

“Your existence is clearly essential to strengthening and amplifying our voice so that we can protect these precious and unassailable constitutional rights,” she told conference attendees, who had traveled to Washington from around the country. “We should be concerned about building a more inclusive, tolerant party and that means restoring our party to our historical roots of individual freedom.”

Both Snowe and Collins are considered leaders in the struggle to protect a woman’s right to choose as well as other issues affecting reproductive rights. In the latest scorecard produced by Planned Parenthood Action Fund, the political arm of Planned Parenthood, both received a 100 percent approval rating.

During her remarks, Snowe reviewed a number of legislative measures she said were aimed at undermining constitutional rights as established by the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1973.

In the first five years of the 1980s, Snowe said Congress cast votes on 30 different abortion-related measures. During the last five years of the 1990s, that number grew to 122. “I don’t have to tell you that this precious right is under assault,” she said.

Most recently, Snowe said fights in Washington have focused on:

. Congressional attempts to deny a woman a late-term abortion even when her health is endangered;

. The debate to provide prescription contraceptives under health plans; and

. The efforts by the Bush administration to hold funding for international family planning and to redefine prenatal healthcare by giving “children from conception” the right to medical care separate from their mothers.

“It’s a backdoor attempt to erode the Roe v. Wade decision,” she said of the recent administration initiative announced by Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson on pre-natal care. “We know that it will help to establish a precedent in law.”

The Republican Pro-Choice Coalition was founded in 1999 to address reproductive health as policy matter rather than a political issue in the GOP. The group also seeks to encourage personal responsibility through family planning initiatives and to ensure access to reproductive health care regardless of income. To that end, the group assists in the campaigns of pro-choice Republicans through its political action committee.

Lynn Grefe, national director for the group, said she believes the GOP has lost many voters because of the party’s official opposition to abortion rights. Still, as far as her members are concerned, they support their party on most issues, including the recent war on terrorism and the economy. When it comes to abortion, she said: “We would rather fight than switch.”