Last night the Republican Party wrapped up two weeks of meetings and a national convention, adopting a strong pro-life platform and nominating for president and vice-president two strong pro-life candidates in Mitt Romney and Rep. Paul Ryan.
I had the pleasure of attending the hearings for the Committee on Resolutions (also known as the Platform Committee) in Tampa, Florida the week before the convention, as well as the convention itself.
While the bulk of the pro-life language is in a section entitled, “We the People: A Restoration of Constitutional Government,” respect for innocent human life and goals for protecting the most vulnerable among us are woven throughout the platform.
National Right to Life was deeply involved. James Bopp, Jr., an attorney from Terre Haute, Indiana, and General Counsel for National Right to Life, co-chaired the all important Constitutional Government subcommittee. Anthony Lauinger, vice president of NRLC and chairman of Oklahomans for Life, was a member of that subcommittee as well.
The platform reads in part, “Faithful to the ‘self-evident’ truths enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, we assert the sanctity of human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed.”
Recognizing that previous Congresses, under Republican leadership, passed the Born-Alive Infant Protection Act and a ban on partial-birth abortions, the platform calls for legislation to ban abortions for sex-selection and to protect from abortion unborn children who are capable of feeling pain.
The platform “salutes” those who provide women facing an unplanned pregnancy with support and alternatives, empowering them to choose life.
China’s “barbaric one-child policy involving forced abortion” is condemned and the party’s support for the Mexico City Policy, which prohibits federal funding of organizations that provide or promote abortion, is re-affirmed.
The platform also states that the Republican party opposes the “non-consensual withholding of care or treatment from people with disabilities, including newborns, as well as the elderly and infirm” and opposes euthanasia and assisted suicide.
The entire platform may be read, or downloaded as a PDF, at https://www.gop.com/2012-republican-platform_home/
Next week, the Democratic Party, at its national convention in Charlotte, NC, is expected to adopt a platform calling for unrestricted abortion on demand and tax funding of abortion. Nancy Keenan, President of NARAL Pro-Choice America, served as a member of that Platform Committee. Keenan and Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, are listed as speakers at the convention.
We applaud the Republican Party and the dedicated members of the platform committee for reaffirming and renewing their efforts on behalf of mothers and their unborn children and all defenseless persons.
National Right to Life knows that our wonderful grassroots pro-lifers make a difference in so many ways and in so many lives each and every day. We are pleased that your voice is represented in a strong and vibrant pro-life party platform.
Your feedback is very important to improving National Right to Life News Today.
Chelsea Garcia is a political writer with a special interest in international relations and social issues. Events surrounding the war in Ukraine and the war in Israel are a major focus for political journalists. But as a former local reporter, she is also interested in national politics.
Chelsea Garcia studied media, communication and political science in Texas, USA, and learned the journalistic trade during an internship at a daily newspaper. In addition to her political writing, she is pursuing a master's degree in multimedia and writing at Texas.
