On July 7, the Republican National Convention released the party’s 2024 platform with a major change to its official position on abortion. For the first time, the party failed to state that it would aim to protect innocent human beings from death by abortion.
“We proudly stand for families and Life,” reads the new platform. “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).”
For comparison, the platforms published in 2016 and 2020 are available to read here.
The new statement is a departure from 40 years of support for a national law protecting preborn children from abortion. It was approved in a matter of hours on Monday in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where the convention will take place next week.
Live Action founder and president Lila Rose responded to the change in a press release, saying:
While the new language is correct that the ’14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States guarantees that no person can be denied life or liberty without due process,’ it is wrong when it says that the ‘power’ to decide life or death ‘has been given to the states and to a vote of the people.’ When states discriminate against preborn children by denying the equal protection of their laws against homicide, they act unconstitutionally. There is no ‘states’ right’ to permit elective abortion…
One member of the RNC platform committee spoke publicly about what occurred on the day the platform was accepted; according to member Gail Ruzicka from Utah, “They rolled us. That’s what they did. I’ve never seen this happen before. I don’t understand why they did it, and I’m extremely disappointed that we do not have any pro-life language.”
“They rolled us. That’s what they did.”
Gail Ruzicka, RNC platform committee member from Utah, just after today’s vote in Milwaukee: “I’ve never seen this happen before. I don’t understand why they did it, and I’m extremely disappointed that we do not have any pro-life language” pic.twitter.com/5DIWoialyP
— Matt Smith (@mattsmith_news) July 8, 2024
Tony Perkins, chairman of Family Research Action and president of the Family Research Council, likewise expressed disappointment with the way things were handled that day. “Delegates were only given a few minutes of discussion before ‘debate’ was ended and a vote was taken,” he said. “… Deprived of the opportunity to discuss amendments to the ‘draft’ platform document, we have submitted a minority report to supplement that campaign’s platform.”
Abortion
Former Vice President Mike Pence shared his thoughts about the new platform, saying, “Now is not the time to surrender any ground in the fight for the right to life. The 2024 platform removed historic pro-life principles that have long been the foundation of the platform.” He added, “I urge delegates attending next week’s Republican Convention to restore language to our party’s platform recognizing the sanctity of human life and affirming that the unborn child has a fundamental right to life which cannot be infringed.”
He went on to say that the right to life is not a state issue as the platform seems to claim, but “a moral issue,” urging the Republican party to “continue to speak with moral clarity and compassion about advancing the cause of life at the federal, state and local level.”
Pro-life leaders also responded to the RNC’s statement on abortion with a variety of opinions, including Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, which said, “It is important that the GOP reaffirmed its commitment to protect unborn life today through the 14th Amendment,” going on to state what that organization believes the “mission of the pro-life movement” should be, politically.
Students for Life Action president Kristan Hawkins applauded the RNC’s inclusion of language from the 14th Amendment, calling it “the most significant contribution.” Later, she took to X to share more of her thoughts.
“I’m pleased to see that the GOP left in the platform that North Star vision proclaiming what we already know — that the 14th Amendment protects preborn human life,” Hawkins said. “The platform is disappointing though to all of us in that it makes it seem as if abortion is merely a state’s issue.” Read more about the pro-life movement’s new North Star here.
Rose also noted the inclusion of the pro-life movement’s new North Star, saying, “The North Star of the pro-life movement remains equal protection for all as guaranteed to every person, regardless of their age or geography, under the 14th Amendment.”
“The platform goes on to state that the Republican party ‘will oppose late-term abortion,”‘ but does not mention opposing abortion at any other time,” said Rose. “This false dichotomy suggests that older babies are somehow more valuable than younger babies. That is a morally and scientifically ridiculous position. Human life begins at the moment of fertilization. From that moment on, every human being has a right to life and equal protection. Holding that older preborn children deserve legal protection while younger children can be killed with impunity is destructive and false.”
Rose added, “A significant majority of abortions are performed early in pregnancy. More than 90% of abortions happen before 15 weeks gestation; opposition to ‘late-term’ abortions alone would permit the vast majority of abortions to continue.”
IVF
In addition to its new language on abortion, the platform also expressed support for in vitro fertilization (IVF), an artificial reproductive technology that kills human embryos at a higher rate than abortion does. Rose responded to this as well:
Research suggests that each year there are at least two million embryos – each one a unique human life – that are created via IVF but are never born, because they either die during the IVF process, are frozen indefinitely, or are directly destroyed.
It is profoundly anti-life and barbaric to enact laws that allow the callous mass killing of preborn children, simply because they were created through IVF.
Infertility can be an incredibly painful burden and is increasingly common. But the solution cannot be to deny legal protections to human embryos or to allow them to be frozen or killed at will in America’s IVF industry; however, this is what the draft platform suggests when it says that the party will be supporting policies that advance access to IVF.
Read more below regarding IVF:
Adoption, IVF, and surrogacy: What pro-lifers need to know
Why pro-life couples should opt for adoption over IVF
Birth control
Rose also responded to the RNC platform’s expressed support for advancing “access to birth control.” She explained, “51% of women seeking abortion in the United States reported that they had used a contraceptive method in the month they became pregnant. Birth control contributes to an abortion mindset, where sex is totally disconnected from procreation, leading to abortion being used as a form of backup birth control.”
Live Action’s recent video series, “The Truth About Sex,” contains more information on the potential harms of birth control.
View the entire series here.
