IS THE REPUBLICAN PARTY BECOMING PRO-CHOICE?



 By Jonathon Van Maren - Posted at First Things:

Published July 16, 2024

The Republican National Committee proposed its 2024 GOP party platform in Milwaukee on July 8, and for the first time in forty years, this platform does not include support for a national abortion ban. Instead, the GOP’s anti-abortion positions are softened and many of the party's previous pro-life commitments have been removed. In particular, the committee stripped a key line included in every GOP platform since 1984: “The unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed.” Instead, the platform states that the power to pass laws on abortion is the purview of the states. It only commits the GOP to opposing “Late Term Abortion” and it supports access to “Birth Control and IVF.”

In every presidential election year, Republican delegates from every state meet to form the Republican National Committee. This committee then puts together a GOP party platform, to be adopted at the Republican National Convention. Gayle Ruzicka, who has served as a delegate on every RNC since 1992, bar one, told me that the RNC process was different this year. Ruzicka is a national board member for Eagle Forum, the socially conservative interest group founded by Phyllis Schlafly in 1972. (It was Schlafly who originally fought for that 1984 line about a “fundamental individual right to life.”) In previous years, the committee process took several days, with sub-committees meeting, proposing amendments, and thoroughly discussing the platform before voting on it. When Ruzicka flew into Milwaukee last weekend, she was expecting several days of similar deliberation. Instead, it was all over before lunchtime on Monday.

On Sunday evening at orientation, delegates were introduced to those they were told would lead the sub-committees the following day. On Monday morning, however, the sub-committees weren’t convened or even mentioned. Instead, delegates had their phones taken from them—strangely, Ruzicka’s watch was taken, as well—and RNC officials rushed the proceedings.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump called in to welcome the delegates, the draft platform was distributed for the first time, and the microphones were opened. Comments were limited to one minute. Most of the delegates were new, Ruzicka told me, people who “came prepared to do what they were told to do. They went quickly to the microphones and formed lines so that the rest of us couldn’t get there. They called the question after just a few statements. No discussion, none at all, about the unborn babies. Senator Marsha Blackburn was running the committee, and she was telling people they couldn’t speak.”



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