The Democratic Party’s Platform Drafting Committee has officially unveiled the completed draft of its 2016 platform, which makes a more explicit call for taxpayer funding of abortion, and calls for state pro-life laws to be overturned as well as federal measures.
Democrat National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz declared that the platform “advances our party’s progressive ideals and is worthy of our great country.”
The previous Democrat Platform called for supporting the “right” to an abortion “regardless of ability to pay, and we oppose any and all efforts to weaken or undermine that right,” which was itself a more pro-abortion shift from past platforms that called for making abortion “less necessary” and “safe, legal, and rare.”
The Democratic Party has announced that its latest platform “goes further than previous Democratic platforms on women’s reproductive rights. It champions Planned Parenthood health centers and commits to push back on all Republican efforts to defund it.” It also calls for eliminating “all federal and state laws that impede a woman’s access to abortion,” including the Hyde Amendment (which prohibits the use of federal funds for elective abortion) and the Helms Amendment (which prohibits foreign aid money from subsidizing abortions).
Maya Harris, a senior policy adviser to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, praised the fact that “for the first time, the Democratic Party platform explicitly calls for repealing the Hyde Amendment.” Clinton has a 100% pro-abortion track record from her time as First Lady, New York Senator, and US Secretary of State.
The platform must now receive approval from the Democrats’ full Platform Committee on July 8 and 9. It will then go before next month’s Democrat National Convention for final ratification.
