Last week, the Republican National Convention adopted a new Republican Party Platform in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. While the platform has received praise from some, many pro-life leaders have called the platform’s changes on abortion to be a major step backward.
Under a heading titled Republicans Will Protect and Defend a Vote of the People, from within the States, on the Issue of Life, the newly adopted platform states:
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).
Lila Rose, founder of the anti-abortion group Live Action, called the platform “a watered-down statement that minimizes the hundreds of thousands of American children killed each year by abortion” and noted that this was the first time in four decades the GOP platform has failed to include language supporting federal protection for unborn children. Rose further stated:
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, which subjects thousands of American children each day to brutal, and for many, painful deaths. The policies proposed in this platform fall desperately short of justice.
Jessica Newell, a pro-life advocate from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, helped lead several peaceful protests outside the RNC. The protests, organized by Live Action, included signs with a picture of an unborn child in the mother’s womb and verbiage, which read, “GOP: Defend My Life” and “Protect Life in Platform!” The protests also included chants like, “RNC, hear our plea, protect the preborn federally!” Newell shared, “The RNC has taken this ‘pro-choice narrative’ so far that it’s become oxymoronic. Now everyone is stripped of a choice—not only the unborn child, but also every voter.”
By weakening the party platform on abortion and completely removing the mention of traditional marriage, Newell perceived the RNC’s new platform as not only forsaking traditional Republican values but also forsaking Biblical values. Newell concluded, “Why are we wavering? The Bible does not waver on the fact that Jesus was human in his mother’s womb. If Mary had the choice to abort Jesus, and she made that choice, we would all be condemned to hell forever. When we compromise our responsibility to defend the oppressed, from conception until natural death, we directly devalue the person of Christ.”
Anastasia Rogers said she traveled to Milwaukee from San Francisco because “babies in California need help and the new RNC platform specifically allows for their murder.” Rogers continued, “The leadership in our state has shown that they will not protect life, so what makes California babies less valuable to the RNC? Without federal protection for the preborn, states run by pro-abortion leadership will continue to see countless lives lost both from residents in their communities and those who travel from other states for abortion.” Rogers concluded, “Saying ‘your state, your decision’ is nothing more than a pro-choice platform in disguise. Without federal protection at conception, abortion is still an option for almost all Americans.”
Dan Miller, the State Director of Pro-Life Wisconsin, shared, “The RNC has taken the cowardly route by deplatforming the pro-life cause. The Republican Party should take a history lesson from itself. They were founded to free the slaves, and they did it in less than three years, from the time President Lincoln wrote his executive order, The Emancipation Proclamation, to the ratifying of the 13th Amendment. And when the Republicans freed the slaves, they didn’t just free SOME of them, they freed them ALL.” Miller continued, “Why should a baby be discriminated against, just because of the manner of his or her conception? Why should some babies be spared, just because you can detect their heartbeat? That’s ageism! Discrimination, based on their age! We need to pass the Life at Conception Act and protect ALL babies under the 14th Amendment. Now is the time. This is our hour. This is a hill worth dying on. The future of our country depends on robust generations to come.”
Joel Enge, who traveled from Tyler, Texas, said, “The RNC, in claiming that the issue of abortion is just a state decision, is culpable of supporting the legal first-degree murder of babies.” Enge continued, “As a black man, I am truly grateful for the 13th Amendment which ended the institution of slavery in America.” He stressed that it was clear action needed to be taken by Congress “to end the greatest injustice in America’s history, the institution of abortion.”
Live Action was not the only organization holding peaceful protests outside the RNC. The Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising held a mock wedding at Red Arrow Park, one of the designated protest sites for the RNC. In the mock wedding, Thomas Hill from Fort Wayne, Indiana represented the GOP, while Sarah Carter from Mundelein, Illinois represented the “abortion industrial complex.” Hill shared, “Our wedding symbolized that the GOP is a collaborator in the mass murder of preborn children and has blood on their hands.” Hill continued, “The RNC has betrayed the preborn and have exposed that they are no longer a pro-life party—they are in bed with the abortion industrial complex, and we will continue to speak out against them and anyone who is complicit in the abortion genocide.”
While many in the pro-life community have been disappointed in the party’s platform, the advocates outside of the RNC did not appear deterred. Enge shared, “With or without a strong pro-life platform in the Republican Party, we are not going to stop fighting for life. Until abortion is abolished, we will keep on fighting and we will win.”
Making his thoughts known on X, Texas State Representative Nate Schatzline (HD-93), said, “The GOP platform needs work to say the least. We are the pro life party and the party of Christian Conservative values, and this platform doesn’t fully represent that.” Schatzline continued, “That said, the local Church is the hope of the world, not the Republican or Democrat Party. Let’s win in November and believe for a spiritual revival because our nation desperately needs Jesus!”
This is a commentary published with the author’s permission. If you wish to submit a commentary to Texas Scorecard, please submit your article to submission@texasscorecard.com.
