The Republican National Committee took steps Monday to adopt a policy platform that reflects Former President Donald Trump’s stance against a federal abortion ban and leave the decision to the states, omitting explicit reasons for a nationwide ban for the first time in 40 years.
Trump imposed his priorities on the RNC platform committee at a time when seeks to distance itself from a strict stance against abortion during his campaigneven as he credits himself with laying the groundwork for the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Trump appointed three of the six justices who voted in the majority to change the 1973 precedent establishing a nationwide right to terminate pregnancies.
The watered-down platform — just 16 pages long and with limited specifics on many of the key issues for Republicans — reflects the Trump campaign’s desire to avoid giving Democrats additional fodder for their warnings about the former president’s intentions if he returns to the White House.
President Joe Biden’s campaign team has repeatedly highlighted the document “Project 2025” crafted by Trump’s allies and the former president’s own promises to impose a wide range of tariffs, replace government workers with party loyalists and carry out the largest deportation operation in US history.
The document sticks to the party’s longstanding principle that the Constitution extends rights to the fetus, but removes language that preserves support for a “constitutional amendment and legislation to make clear that 14th Amendment protections extend to children before birth,” a sentence first included in the party’s platform in 1984.
The new document states: “We believe that the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees that no person may be denied life or liberty without due process.” It also notes “that states are therefore free to pass laws to protect those rights.”
The New York Times was the first media to report on the change in the editorial staff on the abortion.
Anti-abortion activists who had criticized the Trump campaign before the platform committee meeting welcomed the change.
Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of SBA Pro-Life America, praised the commission for reaffirming “its commitment to protect unborn life through the 14th Amendment.”
The platform committee began its meeting on Monday, a week before the start of the Republican National Convention in Wisconsin, where Trump is scheduled to accept his third consecutive nomination for president.