“I believe the Republican party has a platform that is a banner of bold, unmistakable colors with no pale pastel shades,” said Ronald Reagan in 1976 as he gave his concession speech to the Republican National Convention.
This first GOP platform adopted after the Supreme Court struck down the pro-life laws in all the states was also the first to contain the pledge “to seek enactment of a constitutional amendment to restore protection of the right to life for unborn children.”
For nearly 50 years, the platform of the Republican Party continued to be a bold banner declaring Republicans’ commitment to the rights of the unborn.
Sadly, on July 8, the 2024 Republican Party platform that was adopted fails to mention the unborn and omits any pledge to protect them in law.
Gayle Ruzicka, President of Utah Eagle Forum, served as a delegate on the platform committee in Milwaukee and said she was dismayed by the results of the meeting. Instead of the usual practice of receiving the platform draft the night before the committee met, the delegates were given copies only hours before it was adopted.
The group was not divided into subcommittees to debate and amend the document. Instead, the delegates had to place their cell phones in locked Faraday bags and were denied the use of computers. A motion to adopt the platform, as written, was made almost immediately and debate was limited to a handful of pre-selected speakers.
“They rolled us, that’s what they did,” Ruzicka said in an interview with WISN News12. “I’ve never seen this happen before. I don’t understand why they did it, and I’m extremely disappointed that we do not have any pro-life language. It doesn’t mention the unborn baby … at all.”
The new language departs from the clear statement of principle that has been in every Republican Platform since 1984 — that Republicans believe in the fundamental right to life of the unborn which cannot be infringed. For 40 years, the GOP platform has encouraged passage of a human life amendment to the Constitution and legislation to make clear that the 14th Amendment’s protections apply to unborn children.
This new platform removes the explicit pro-life principles that have long been the bedrock of the pro-life plank. The principled statements cited above have been deleted. The opposition to federal funding of abortion and the organizations like Planned Parenthood is also gone.
No longer does the platform express the Republicans’ opposition to infanticide, abortion for sex-selection and disability, euthanasia, assisted suicide and embryonic stem cell research. The new platform seems to define “pro-life” as mere opposition to “late term abortion.”
The new language says, “We believe that the 14th Amendment … guarantees that no person can be denied Life or Liberty without Due Process,” but does not apply these protections to the unborn. Without clarifying that unborn children are included in the definition of “persons,” the reference is meaningless. As Princeton Professor Robert P. George explained, “the relevant clause of the 14th Amendment is actually the Equal Protection Clause — which goes unmentioned — and the 14th Amendment expressly authorizes Congress, not the states, to enforce its substantive guarantees.”
The new language seems to imply that any regulation of abortion is to be left to “the States and to a vote of the People.” Does this mean the GOP only supports the use of state referendums to regulate and limit abortion? The Dobbs decision that overruled Roe v. Wade said that the “difficult moral and policy questions will be decided by … the people and their elected representatives,” but did not limit these decisions to only the states.
The campaign repeatedly told delegates they wanted to create a platform that was clear, concise and easy to understand by all Americans. But the life language is not clear. It seems intentionally vague and subject to various interpretations. Some pro-life groups have already claimed the new platform calls for federal protections when it clearly does not.
The good news is that Republicans remain overwhelmingly pro-life and are committed to defending the rights of the weakest among us, supporting women who face unplanned pregnancies, encouraging adoption and ensuring our laws are designed to protect the health of mothers and children.
According to a Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics poll of 802 registered Utah voters, published in February 2023, only 18% of respondents support abortion in all cases. Forty-six percent support abortion in only in instances of rape, incest or when the health of the mother is threatened, and 7% oppose abortion in all cases.
A poll later that year found that 89% of Utah Republican respondents either strongly or somewhat approve of the Utah trigger law preventing almost all elective abortions.
Even if this current platform is silent on the sanctity of life, we will continue to support candidates and advocate for laws that protect life and assist pregnant women and their families. We hope that President Donald Trump and his vice presidential nominee, JD Vance, will embrace their records of defending the rights of all Americans, born and unborn.
Eagle Forum has a congressional scorecard where voters can learn about the positions taken by current office holders, and a PAC that endorses candidates in congressional elections. We encourage voters who care about the issue not to be discouraged, but instead, work tirelessly for a society that welcomes and protects life.
Kristen A. Ullman is the president of Eagle Forum and has served on the Eagle Forum Board since 2017.
Kristen A. Ullman is the president of Eagle Forum and has served on the Eagle Forum Board since 2017. She served as executive director of Eagle Forum’s D.C. office from 1995-1998, working directly with the organization’s founder, Phyllis Schlafly. She then worked as legislative director to Sen. John Ashcroft (R-MO) and as a deputy assistant attorney general at the Department of Justice. She left that position to be a full-time mother to her three children before returning to full-time advocacy in 2022.
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