"The most spirited disagreement during the sessions that brought forth the Republican platform in Detroit," Mr. Buckley begins, "had to do with ... women's rights and abortion." The GOP had as recently as the 1976 platform backed the Equal Rights Amendment; this year the platform committee withdrew that plank, over the opposition of Rep. Heckler. This sizzling exchange sometimes reaches the boiling point, but there is also serious discussion of current laws, of working conditions for women, and of the amendment itself. WFB: "I should like to begin by asking Mrs. Heckler whether the statement I have just quoted [from her] doesn't suggest that Mrs. Schlafly, who opposes ERA, also opposes women's rights." MH: "I would have to ask Mrs. Schlafly to speak for herself on the position on women's rights, but I think that those of us who see the amendment as the only vehicle are aware of the fact--as I am, as a member of Congress for 14 years-- that the case-by-case method of dealing with changing the law will simply take another two hundred years...." PS: "I brought along with me a Republican platform that I support and Ronald Reagan supports and which Mrs. Heckler does not support, and I think there's one sentence that... explains the difference between her position and mine. The platform says, 'We support equal rights and equal opportunities for women without taking away traditional rights of women such as exemption from the military draft.' Now I think that one sentence shows who's really for women's rights."