Conservatives May Resist New GOP Platform Language On Life And Family Issues

The RNC platform committee yesterday voted to adopt a new Republican Party platform that will move the GOP away from the national abortion ban it formerly championed and instead call for the issue to be handled by the states, in keeping with recent Supreme Court

decisions.

Brittany Bernstein reported for National Review, that the 2016 and 2020 platform included specific information about what the Republican Party would do to limit abortions, including supporting a federal ban on abortion after 20 weeks and calling for states to pass the Human Life Amendment, which would amend the Constitution to say that life begins at conception. The prior platform stated that “the unborn child has a fundamental right to life which cannot be infringed.”

However, this Convention’s platform says: “We proudly stand for families and Life. We believe that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States guarantees that no person can be denied Life or Liberty without Due Process, and that the States are, therefore, free to pass Laws protecting those Rights. After 51 years, because of us, that power has been given to the States and to a vote of the People. We will oppose Late Term Abortion, while supporting mothers and policies that advance Prenatal Care, access to Birth Control, and IVF (fertility treatments).”

In response to the draft Republican Party platform language approved yesterday, SBA Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser issued the following statement:

It is important that the GOP reaffirmed its commitment to protect unborn life today through the 14th Amendment. Under this amendment, it is Congress that enacts and enforces its provisions. The Republican Party remains strongly pro-life at the national level.

The mission of the pro-life movement, for the next four months, must be to defeat the Biden-Harris extreme abortion agenda.

The platform allows us to provide the winning message to 10 million voters, with four million visits at the door in key battleground states. We are educating voters on the Biden-Harris promotion of abortion for any reason even in the seventh, eighth, or ninth month. We contrast that with protecting the states’ ability to create consensus pro-life laws and provide compassionate options for women and children.

However, Kristen Ullman, president of Eagle Forum, was critical of the draft platform’s quick adoption process.

“This process is not how the rules of the Republican Party claim the process is supposed to work,” she told National Review. “The rules say that we are an open and transparent party and that the delegates have historically had the opportunity to read, digest, and amend the platform, and they were not given this opportunity. And it is very disappointing.”

In a statement released to CHQ Ms. Ullman elaborated:

Republicans are pro-life.

Sadly, this Republican Platform is not.

The 2024 language departs from the clear statement of principle that has been in every Republican Platform since 1984 — we believe in the fundamental right to life of the unborn which cannot be infringed. For 40 years, the Party has supported ensuring this right through the enactment of both a human life amendment to the Constitution and legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to unborn children.

This new platform removes the explicit pro-life principles that have long been the bedrock of the pro-life plank. While the 14th Amendment’s right to due process is cited, it does not apply these protections to the unborn. Without clarifying that unborn children are included in the definition of “persons,” the reference is meaningless. The new platform seems to define “pro-life” as mere opposition to “late-term abortion.”

The campaign repeatedly said they wanted to create a clear, concise, and easy-to-understand platform. They failed in this goal. The ‘Life’ language is not clear but intentionally vague and subject to various interpretations. Ronald Reagan said in 1976, "Our Platform is a banner of bold unmistakable colors with no pastel shades." Sadly, this is not the case this year.

Republicans remain pro-life — even if this platform does not reflect those views — and will continue to advocate for laws protecting the life of the unborn at every level of government.

Not only was the process of drafting the Platform flawed – indeed it reminded many delegates and observers of how Congress passes anti-conservative legislation in closed-door midnight deals – it also appears to have given up many of the political advantages the pro-life position brought to the Republican Party over the past four decades.

As our friend former Congressman Tim Huelskamp explained in an op-ed for Newsweek, Joe Biden's radical pro-abortion record is particularly out of step with the average American voter. Polling shows that over 7 in 10 Americans oppose abortion after 15 weeks, the point at which the vast majority of European nations limit elective abortions. These voters would be disgusted to learn that the Biden administration is aggressively fighting to enshrine a federal "right" to taxpayer-funded abortion through all nine months, with zero protections for babies born alive after abortion or for pain-capable unborn children (something only 10 percent of Americans actually support.)

Republicans have the moral—and political—upper hand on abortion, if they are willing to stake their position on it rather than allowing extreme opponents to define them. It is imperative that the party not follow the doomed playbook of many GOP hopefuls in the 2022 midterms, who cratered their own campaigns by ducking the issue. Rather, Republicans should hold fast to the pro-life provisions that have consistently been included in their platform since 1980.

Republicans must focus on the many advantages they have over Democrats on the life issue. And the party must not abandon its strong commitment to protecting the unborn—not now, when it is needed most.

The move away from supporting the pro-life position with clarity and specificity is in our view a step backward. There may be some political utility in clarifying the GOP position on IVF fertility treatments and birth control but neither of those issues have been openly debated as such issues have been in the past.

This year’s GOP Platform has many good planks and offers a clear contrast with Democrats on many issues, unfortunately we find the plank on the Right to Life is not one of them. It remains to be seen if there will be a conservative rebellion on the Floor when the Platform is presented for adoption.

• 2024 Election

• GOP Platform Committee

• national abortion ban

• Republican Party Platform

• Donald Trump campaign

• Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health

• GOP platform changes

• abortion

• Human Life Amendment

• 14th Amendment

• 20 week federal ban

• Roe v. Wade

• Mike Pence

• Advancing American Freedom

• Pro-Life Movement

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