Last month, Brittany Bernstein and I reported on concerns from movement pro-lifers that this year’s Republican National Committee platform will water down the national party’s commitment to the pro-life cause. “The RNC’s 2016 platform, reaffirmed at the 2020 convention during the pandemic, mentions the word ‘abortion’ 35 times and expresses support for a human-life amendment to the U.S. Constitution as well as ‘legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to children before birth,'” we reported. The 2016 platform also voices support for a federal ban on abortion after 20 weeks. “Given Trump’s recent statements on abortion,” we wrote, “pro-life groups and some RNC members fear that kind of strongly worded commitment will be absent from this year’s platform when it’s unveiled in July.”
The RNC platform committee formally adopted a new platform on Monday during a closed-door meeting in Milwaukee, one week before the convention formally kicks off on July 15. Here’s the national party’s new draft platform language on abortion, which reflects presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump’s federalist approach to the issue:
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).
Unlike the 2016 platform, this year’s document makes no reference to a human-life amendment or a federal 20-week ban on abortion — an unsurprising change given the former president’s stated view that the issue should be left to the states. The word “abortion” is mentioned only once in the entire 16-page document.
This year’s language comes after the Trump campaign spent weeks pressuring state delegations behind the scenes to select platform committee members whose views are closely aligned with those of the former president. “It’s typical for the presumptive presidential nominee’s campaign to play a role in identifying platform picks who are closely aligned with their candidate. This cycle is no exception. Many RNC members tell NR that in recent weeks, the Trump campaign has sent state parties a slate of their preferred picks for the four convention committees, including the influential platform committee,” Brittany and I reported last month. That effort was in overdrive this cycle: “Some members who were eager to get a slot on the coveted platform committee are convinced they were sidelined by the Trump campaign because of their staunchly pro-life views.”
The 2024 platform is much shorter than the 2016 document and includes pledges to support “baseline tariffs on foreign-made goods,” to “carry out the largest deportation operation in American history,” to “keep men out of women’s sports,” to “deport pro-Hamas radicals,” and to preserve Social Security and Medicare “with no cuts, including no changes to the retirement age.” Read the 2024 document here.