The Republican Party’s positions to ban abortions and gay marriages by amending the Constitution go too far for some Maine Republicans attending the Republican National Convention in New York City.

The GOP’s platform, which represents the party’s goals over the next four years, was adopted Monday by delegates attending the convention.

In its 99 pages, the platform calls for a Constitutional amendment to define marriage as being between a man and a woman. Individual states should not decide how to deal with gay marriages, and state judges or bureaucrats should not force states to recognize living arrangements as equal to marriage, the platform says.

In addition, it states that homosexuality is “incompatible” with the military.

On abortion, the platform recommends doing away with Roe vs. Wade. “We support a human life amendment to the Constitution and we endorse legislation to make it clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to unborn children,” the platform reads.

In other issues, the platform lauds the “No Child Left Behind” education law, and the federal Medicare prescription plan. On Social Security, the platform vows not to raise taxes or cut benefits for those receiving Social Security and for those close to being eligible. It also supports allowing individuals to direct some of their payroll taxes into personal retirement accounts instead of Social Security.

One Maine delegate, state Sen. Richard Bennett, R-Norway, said he doesn’t agree with all aspects of the platform. “It’s anti-abortion, which is certainly where the center of the Republican Party is,” Bennett said. “Maine is a pro-choice state. I’ve been pro-choice in my votes overall,” Bennett said. The language in the platform “is too strong for me.”

Bennett also disagreed with changing the Constitution to ban same-sex marriages. “I don’t think it’s necessary.” The issue should be decided at the state level, he said.

Both of Maine’s U.S. senators share Bennett’s feelings about the two issues.

“I am pro-choice, so I do not support a constitutional amendment” to ban abortions, Sen. Susan Collins said Wednesday during a phone interview from the convention.

“I don’t support gay marriages, but I think the matter should be left up to individual states,” Collins said. She called the rush to change the Constitution “premature” and “divisive.”

Collins said she would have preferred that the platform not call for the constitutional amendments.

A spokesman for U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe said the senator opposes constitutional bans on abortion and gay marriage.

The platform is more an expression of President Bush than of rank-and-file Republicans, Bennett said. While delegates voted for it Monday, many – including Bennett himself – have not fully read it, he said.

“People don’t really expect candidates to fully adhere to the platform. It’s a summary of the party’s center gravity,” Bennett said.

Collins predicted that the chances of either ban passing in Congress “are slim to almost none at all.”

In defense of her party’s platform, Collins said it recognizes that Republicans have disagreements, and the party welcomes different views. “I’m pleased to see that language included. That sends a signal that you can be a good Republican and not embrace every plank.”

She said she was also pleased that the platform gave attention to homeland security and the war on terrorism. “We were so vulnerable prior to Sept. 11,” Collins said. “We’re certainly not safe, but we’re so much safer than we were.”

Asked his position on the platform’s call for the constitutional bans, Peter Cianchette, a Maine delegate and Maine chairman of the Bush-Cheney campaign, noted that Republicans don’t agree on every issue.

Messages left with other Lewiston-area delegates at the convention were not returned.