The Republican Party Platform Committee is adopting language that calls for the elimination of abortion business Planned Parenthood’s taxpayer funding and that recognizes an unborn child’s “fundamental right to life.”
Additionally, the platform committee, led by Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), asserts the Republican Party will “not fund or subsidize health care which includes abortion coverage.”
CNSNews.com reports on the actual language of the draft document:
The Constitution’s guarantee that no one can be deprived of life, liberty, or property deliberately echoes the Declaration of Independence’s proclamation that ‘all’ are ‘endowed by their Creator’ with the right to life. Accordingly, we assert the sanctity of human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental right to life which cannot be infringed.
We support a human life amendment to the Constitution and legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to children before birth. We oppose the use of public funds to perform or promote abortion or to fund organizations, like Planned Parenthood, that perform or advocate it and will not fund or subsidize health care which includes abortion coverage.
In sharp contrast to the Republican draft platform, the Democrat Party has fully embraced abortion and Planned Parenthood, and has vowed to repeal the Hyde Amendment, a longstanding provision that prohibits taxpayer funding of abortion. Democrat Party presumptive nominee Hillary Clinton has said unborn children have no constitutional rights.
Live Action president Lila Rose referred to forced taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood as a “corrupt cycle.”
“Taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to support Planned Parenthood, America’s largest abortion chain that commits over 320,000 abortions each year,” she said in a statement. “While the American people are told their money doesn’t go to fund abortions, the billions in taxpayer funding Planned Parenthood has collected over the years has freed up money elsewhere in its budget, allowing it to build more abortion facilities and buy more abortion equipment.”
Rose continued:
The abortion giant has been caught in one scandal after another, from covering up for pimps sex trafficking 13-year-old girls, to encouraging mothers to abort their baby girls in favor of having boys, to the barbaric practice of harvesting and trafficking the body parts of the precious babies it aborts.
Planned Parenthood receives over a half billion dollars each year from taxpayers, then gives back millions in campaign contributions to those politicians who vote to keep the money flowing. This corrupt cycle of campaign contributions in return for forced taxpayer support must stop.
Mark Harrington, national director of Created Equal, a pro-life group that is heading up the #OperationRNC campaign, is applauding the Republican Party Platform Committee’s decision to support defunding Planned Parenthood and to extend the constitutional right to life to pre-born babies.
“This is a true victory,” Harrington said in a statement. “The Republican Party Platform Committee’s adopted draft language is exactly what we have asked for. This platform ensures that the Republican Party remains pro-life.”
#OperationRNC is flying pro-life tow banners over the city of Cleveland as the Republican National Convention gathers there. The group is calling for the $540 million in taxpayer funds currently given to Planned Parenthood to be redirected to the 13,000 federally qualified health centers that provide comprehensive women’s health care.
The final version of the GOP platform will be presented to the Republican National Convention next week. The draft document solidifies constitutional conservative principles and values regarding life, marriage, and religious freedom.
American Principles Project executive director Terry Schilling said about the platform:
Today, conservative, forward-thinking Republicans strengthened their party’s platform when it came to life, marriage, and religious freedom. The pro-life wording of the platform is the strongest that it has ever been in the history of the Republican Party. Delegates also added language affirming religious freedom rights for all Americans and protected the rights of gay marriage dissenters from punitive and invidious discrimination from the federal government. They also defeated several proposals from a small, well-organized group to weaken the platform’s language on religious freedom and marriage. Today is a good day for all Americans who value the dignity of all human life and our God-given rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Family Research Council president and Louisiana delegate on the platform committee Tony Perkins said he cannot predict whether there will be friction between GOP presumptive nominee Donald Trump and the conservative platform.
Trump has said he would defund Planned Parenthood if it continues to perform abortions, but has also said the abortion business helps “millions and millions” of women. While Trump has said he will appoint pro-life judges, he has also said he would allow exceptions for abortions in cases of rape and incest.
“I can’t necessarily predict what’s going to happen,” Perkins told CNSNews.com. “I can only go based on what I’ve seen so far. And they’ve allowed the delegates to do their work, so I think they’re going to respect the platform.”
“I mean, Donald Trump is Donald Trump. He has his campaign, he has his message, and I don’t think that’s going to change,” he added. “But I also think he will respect the work of the delegates and I think he’s going to respect the party and the principles they lay out as important.”
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