Republicans scale back pro-life provisions in new party platform

The Republican Party in the United States on Monday published its 2024 party platform, which did not include plans to push for a national law protecting unborn babies. This represents a departure from platforms in prior years. For example, in 2016, the party applauded both state and federal efforts to restrict the ability of women to kill their unborn babies through abortion. Former President Donald Trump was the party’s nominee both years.

In 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade with its Dobbs v. Jackson decision. Roe granted women the constitutional right to abort their unborn children. Trump has claimed credit for that reversal, saying he stacked the Supreme Court with the conservative justices who made that decision.

Did the party platform say anything at all about abortion? The platform said Republicans would oppose late-term abortions but largely indicated the different states should decide for themselves how to regulate abortion within their borders.

What have pro-lifers had to say about this? Pro-life advocate Lila Rose criticized the party platform as a departure from the Republican Party’s 40-year pattern of advocating for unborn children. But the organization Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America applauded the party platform, describing it as a winning message. The priority was countering the extreme pro-abortion agenda of the Biden-Harris administration, SBA said. The group promised to work with Republicans to court pro-life voters across battleground states.

Dig deeper: Read Elizabeth Shenk’s report in Vitals about the battle surrounding researchers’ retractions of studies about the abortion drug mifepristone.