5 notable provisions in the 2024 Republican Party Platform
1. Suggests states have responsibility to implement pro-life laws
The change in the platform’s language on abortion generated the most attention. This year, only one paragraph in the document is devoted to abortion. By contrast, nearly an entire page of the 2016 platform, also used in 2020, outlined the party’s views on abortion.
The 2024 platform declares that “Republicans will Protect and Defend a vote of the people, from within the states, on the Issue of Life,” adding: “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.”
However, unlike the 2016 platform, which expressed support for “a human life amendment to the Constitution and legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to children before birth,” this year’s platform stops short of calling for a Human Life Amendment. Instead, it states that “States are, therefore, free to pass Laws protecting those rights.”
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The revised language pertaining to abortion in this year’s Republican platform reflects the fact that the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion nationwide and enabled states to set limits on abortion or pass near-total bans on terminating the life of a preborn baby. The 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organizationdecision has also resulted in multiple states passing constitutional rights to abortion.
The platform section on abortion concludes with a vow to “oppose Late Term Abortion, while supporting mothers and policies that advance Prenatal Care, access to Birth Control, and IVF (fertility treatments).” Absent from the platform is any mention of opposition to taxpayer funding of abortion, euthanasia and a condemnation of the Democrats’ position on the issue.
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
