Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The Republican Party on Monday approved a new platform that contains the same Human Life Amendment the GOP has advocated for years enshrining legal protection for unborn children in the nation’s Constitution. The platform also lauds the work of crisis pregnancy centers and their efforts to provide pregnant women with tangible help and resources.

Early Monday afternoon, LifeNews.com had exclusive access as the Republican Party’s platform committee approved the final draft of the platform with little fanfare and no opposition.

After the platform committee meeting, the thousands of delegates gathered in Minnesota for the national convention signed off on the platform to a standing ovation of applause.

The platform draws on the nation's founding documents as expressing the earliest support for human life but backs a Constitutional amendment to make those protections clear.

"Faithful to the first guarantee of the Declaration of Independence, we assert the inherent dignity and sanctity of all human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed," the final GOP platform draft says.

"We support a human life amendment to the Constitution, and we endorse legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment's protections apply to unborn children.”

Prior to the platform adoption, pro-life Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California told the convention that the GOP’s platform has stark contrasts from the ones Democrats put forward, which strongly supports abortion.

“For those who say there is no difference between the parties -- this platform will prove them wrong. This platform recaptures our principles … because Americans deserve only the best,” he said.

With the Supreme Court serving as the main arbiter of abortion law in the United States, the Republican Party expressed its support for the kind of sensible judges its presidential candidate John McCain has said he would nominate.

"We support the appointment of judges who respect traditional family values and the sanctity and dignity of innocent human life," it said.

The platform talks about the progress pro-life advocates have made in moving towards the day when unborn children are protected under the law and applauded the Supreme Court for upholding the partial-birth abortion ban.

It also notes the party's opposition to taxpayer funding of abortion and support for parental involvement initiatives.

National Right to Life political director Karen Cross and other NRLC officials have been intimately involved in efforts to keep the GOP pro-life and are actively working the Minneapolis convention.

She told LifeNews.com that the venerable pro-life group "applauds the Republican Party, and especially the members of the platform committee representing grassroots pro-life Republicans across the country, for making such a strong and unequivocal stand supporting life at all stages."

"The work of the platform committee makes clear, in no uncertain terms, that the Republican Party is the pro-life party," she added.

The Republican party platform also applauds the Born Alive Infants Protection Act, which has become an issue in the presidential election as Barack Obama opposed an Illinois version of that law, which requires proper medical care for newborns who survive botched abortions.

The GOP also included strong statements supporting pregnant women, but went further than their Democratic counterparts.

"We all have a moral obligation to assist, not to penalize, women struggling with the challenges of an unplanned pregnancy," it says. "its core, abortion is a fundamental assault on the sanctity of innocent human life. Women deserve better than abortion."

"Every effort should be made to work with women considering abortion to enable and empower them to choose life," it goes on to say

.The GOP platform also includes calls to oppose euthanasia and protect people with disabilities like Terri Schiavo.

"Respect for life requires efforts to include persons with disabilities in education, employment, the justice system, and civic participation," it says.

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