Pro-Life Republicans Must Keep Fighting to Restore Pro-Life Principles in the GOP Platform
The dust may have settled from the platform buzzsaw in Milwaukee, but the aftershocks haven’t. Almost 800 miles away in D.C., Republican leaders are finally getting a chance to read the document that delegates didn’t. And as their reviews of the 16-page treatise start to fill up headlines and press interviews, there’s one overarching theme […]
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The dust may have settled from the platform buzzsaw in Milwaukee, but the aftershocks haven’t. Almost 800 miles away in D.C., Republican leaders are finally getting a chance to read the document that delegates didn’t. And as their reviews of the 16-page treatise start to fill up headlines and press interviews, there’s one overarching theme on the RNC’s radical changes: why?
Donald Trump’s former vice president, Mike Pence, was probably the loudest critic of the weakened language Tuesday, posting disgruntledly, “The RNC platform is a profound disappointment to the millions of pro-life Republicans that have always looked to the Republican Party to stand for life,” Pence said. “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.”
The new document, as many have complained, abandons the unborn to the states — completely ignoring all of the federal programs that have a role in protecting (or in Biden’s case, targeting) life. The military, Medicaid, the regulation of the abortion pill, the VA, taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood and overseas abortion, and the list goes on and on.
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Equally as horrifying, Pence adds, “The updated platform also cedes this fight to the states, leaving the unborn in California and Illinois to the far-left’s extremist abortion policies. The right to life is not only a state issue; it is a moral issue, and our party must continue to speak with moral clarity and compassion about advancing the cause of life at the federal, state and local level.”
Even the mainstream media is picking up on the fact that this is a major departure from past positions of the GOP.
ABC News’s podcast, “Start Here” with host Brad Mielke, highlighted the fact that abortion is not part of the platform’s top 20 priorities — instead, it’s “tucked away on one of the final pages.” “And as expected, the language there strongly mirrors Trump, which has been deferring to the states. … And it goes on to say the group will oppose late-term abortion … But it’s interesting,” he notes, “because ‘We oppose late-term abortion.’ That doesn’t sound like we oppose all abortion. That almost seems like walking back from previous years. … This is the first time in decades that the RNC hasn’t explicitly endorsed a national ban on abortion in the platform.”
In the Senate, Republicans also expressed dismay, worried that the axing of more than 1,200 words of pro-life principles and goals will come back to haunt Republicans on Election Day. “It has a lot of potential to hurt us,” Senator Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) told Axios about the shift. “It’s the one issue that could divide the Trump base from President Trump,” Cramer said over text. “Right now Republicans have enthusiasm for our nominee when the Democrats clearly do not for theirs.”
His Louisiana colleague, Senator Bill Cassidy (R), chimed in, “I liked the way it was previously” — a theme echoed by Oklahoma Senator James Lankford (R). “We’ve had it for 40 years, I didn’t see a problem with it,” he replied when Axios asked if he wished the platform had kept the stronger language of the past several decades. “I was surprised, because it’s been such an important part of our party’s platform and what we stand for for a long time,” Utah’s Mike Lee (R) said.
Back in Milwaukee, the shock is starting to wear off for the 112 men and women who were steamrolled by the RNC’s Monday heist. More are starting to speak up, including Iowan delegate Tamara Scott who called the whole stunt “heartbreaking.”
“I tell people, my role is to uphold or to preserve our Judeo-Christian foundations as a nation, to protect our constitutional liberties and freedoms, and … to protect our principles as a platform. And so it was heartbreaking,” she lamented. “It was heartbreaking.” Like so many others, she agreed the document “was not terrible” but insisted it “could be stronger, could be better.” In the end, Tamara wanted people to know, “We, as a party, are still pro-life. It’s just not the great language, the distinctive, definitive language that had clarity that we have enjoyed and stood with for 40 years. … It was taken off, as you know, without the ability to really even have a vote or have input as to whether or not it was removed. We were just presented with a brand new document.”
Pointing to how much people sacrificed to be there, how time-consuming and expensive it is to be a delegate, Tamara sounded off on how astonished these Republicans were to be elbowed out of the process. “People who do this are committed,” she told guest host and former Congressman Jody Hice on “Washington Watch” Tuesday, “and they want to have input. Beyond that, they’re [representing] their state. … I don’t take that lightly. And to not even be given a chance to have discussion, to present an argument … was demoralizing. It felt disrespectful to these folks to spend this kind of money and be … dismissed. It was disheartening. … These folks deserved better.”
This idea that the platform needed to reflect Trump and not the conservative base is just illogical, Scott pointed out. “For months I’ve heard this rhetoric from people associated with the campaign that it needed to reflect his messaging or his marketing. No, the party is separate. Now, where we work together, we work in tandem, and it’s great when that happens. But a campaign document is from a candidate. It is top-down. … A party platform is [from] the grassroots ground up, and it is for the next 40 years. It is our timeless principles, our core values, and those aspirations which we hope to achieve. We may not get them in four years, but it’s something that’s important enough, like life, that we will continue working towards it.”
As FRC Action Chairman Tony Perkins put it colorfully when talking about the platform to Hice, “It’s not rat poison, but it’s cotton candy. It’s not the substance that we’re accustomed to that lays out these enduring principles that movements are built upon. It does lack clarity on the issue of life. It is a step back.” To those handful of groups and Trump allies who want to sweep all of the problems on the life language under the rug, Perkins warned, “I don’t like spin, okay? … It is a step backwards. It doesn’t move us closer to recognizing that all human life, which is created in the image of God, is to be welcomed into our world and protected under our laws. It falls short of that, and it moves it further away.”
Is it discouraging? Absolutely. But, as FRC’s president reminded Christians, “No victory this side of heaven is permanent, nor is any defeat permanent. And so we keep going.”
“This is what Ephesians 6 talks about,” he said of his signature Bible sign-off. “… The battle is never done this side of heaven. We have to continue to perpetually stand for the truth, knowing that there’s going to be good days and there’s going to be some days like [Monday], bad days. But you know what?” he asked. “God sits on his throne, and He laughs at the nations who rage against Him and say that they can do it their way. God’s truth is enduring. That’s where we should stand, and that’s where we should move our communities, our country.”
His stand and FRC’s stand for truth isn’t personal. As Hice said, “This is not a battle against any candidate or any party, per se. This is a stand for truth, for biblical truth, something that we have done for decades — and something that now we must continue.” But the fact of the matter is, it cannot happen again. “I think [the RNC] need[s] to know that this is not acceptable,” Tony reiterated, “because if not, we’ll see this repeated in four years, and we can’t have that.”
“It took us 45 years to get to where we were,” he said, looking back. “And so, to see a retreat in one day and not even have debate on it, it was insulting. It was wrong, and it cannot be tolerated. So we’re encouraging people to … inundate Chairman [Michael] Whatley with this support of this minority report, saying we will not [stand for] the party moving away from the issue of life.”
In the meantime? Perkins urged people to go into the election with “eyes wide open.” “We still have a clear contrast between the two parties. … We can continue to do our work — [to] pray, vote and stand.”
Turning serious, he tried to rally the base’s discouraged troops. “Let me again be very, very clear, folks. We have to vote, and we have to have discernment. And we have to understand we’re not going to have perfect alignment [with any party]. And so yes, we’re disappointed in this temporary setback. … [But] staying home, folks, is not an option. It’s not an option. I mean, not voting is a vote for the worst possible outcome. And so we have to be informed and engaged even when we’re not completely happy with what we’re dealing with.”
Look, Perkins encouraged, “There’s always hope as long as the sun is rising. But God has entrusted us with this moment, and I think He’s entrusted us with this moment to be faithful to the truth, to proclaim that truth even when it is politically inexpedient. … We’re to continue to speak that truth, and we will at the Family Research Council, knowing that God will be honored. And when He is honored, His blessings come with it.”
Will we turn this country around? “I certainly hope so,” he said optimistically. “That’s what we’re working to do. But if we don’t, well, that’s upon God. The results belong to Him. The duty to obey is ours.”
LifeNews Note: Suzanne Bowdey is a reporter at The Washington Stand, where this originally appeared.
The post Pro-Life Republicans Must Keep Fighting to Restore Pro-Life Principles in the GOP Platform appeared first on LifeNews.com.