Republican Party Cmte OK Strong Pro-Life Platform Condemning Abortion
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
August 27, 2008
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — The Republican Party’s platform committee has put the finishing touches on a new party platform that contains some of the strongest language ever condemning abortion and supporting legal protections for unborn children. The platform stands in stark contrast to the pro-abortion plank Democrats approved Monday.
The platform will officially be adopted when Republicans start their convention on Monday.
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," it added.
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.
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 noted the party’s opposition to taxpayer funding of abortion and support for parental involvement initiatives.
The Republican party platform also applauded 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.
Darla St. Martin, the associate executive director for NRLC, told LifeNews.com that the Republican Party platform is head and shoulders better than the pro-abortion version the Democratic Party adopted.
"The Democrats have gone out of their way to alienate America’s pro-life majority by embracing the radical pro-abortion agenda of Barack Obama," she said. "The Republican Party has once again demonstrated that it is completely in line with the majority of Americans who oppose the vast majority of abortions."
Senator McCain had promised earlier that he would not call for any changes in the platform.
The final draft of the GOP platform reads:
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. 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. We oppose using public revenues to promote or perform abortion and will not fund organizations which advocate it. We support the appointment of judges who respect traditional family values and the sanctity and dignity of innocent human life.
We have made progress. The Supreme Court has upheld prohibitions against the barbaric practice of partial-birth abortion. States are now permitted to extend health-care coverage to children before birth. And the Born Alive Infants Protection Act has become law; this law ensures that infants who are born alive during an abortion receive all treatment and care that is provided to all newborn infants and are not neglected and left to die. We must protect girls from exploitation and statutory rape through a parental notification requirement. We all have a moral obligation to assist, not to penalize, women struggling with the challenges of an unplanned pregnancy. At 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. We salute those who provide them alternatives, including pregnancy care centers, and we take pride in the tremendous increase in adoptions that has followed Republican legislative initiatives.
Respect for life requires efforts to include persons with disabilities in education, employment, the justice system, and civic participation. In keeping with that commitment, we oppose the non-consensual withholding of care or treatment from people with disabilities, as well as the elderly and infirm, just as we oppose euthanasia and assisted suicide, which endanger especially those on the margins of society….
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