(FORTUNE Magazine) – For years, Republicans have gathered at their summer convention and beaten one another up over abortion. This year George W. Bush, who does not intend to alter the GOP platform's anti-abortion language by one semicolon, has issued a virtual gag order on the subject. Remarkably, the delegates who will arrive in Philadelphia later this month show signs of complying.

The angry debates between anti-abortion and pro-choice delegates that usually dominate the days preceding the convention have already been held. You didn't notice? That was the plan; they took place last month in Billings, Mont., and Dayton. There was little sound and no fury. Instead of prominently releasing a draft platform, the GOP will distribute it late one evening while most delegates are at social events and quietly approve it. Since the TV networks will barely bother with either convention, any dissenting abortion views in Philadelphia won't be seen all over America.

The silent treatment might work. Although there are more Christian right delegates this year than in prior GOP conventions, they are less extreme than their predecessors. "The pragmatists are in control,'' says James Guth, an expert on the Christian right at Furman University. Like the other GOP delegates, they are more interested in winning in November than in debating in July. Bush believes the delegates will remain quiet as long as he doesn't choose an ardent pro-choice politician as his Vice President.

There's one other principal whose silence can't be assured. Look for Al Gore to emphasize abortion during the week of the Republican convention even if the GOP delegates don't.