The US Republican Party released its platform on Monday (8), denying anti-abortion activists the broader language they demanded on ways to restrict abortion and embracing views of its presidential candidate, Donald Trump.
The platform, a formal statement of the party’s goals, contains Trump’s position that the issue of abortion should be determined by individual states. It does not mention a federal ban or the protection of the fetus as a person under the Constitution — principles included in previous platforms and demanded by a group of influential evangelicals.
The non-binding platform also promises that Trump and Republicans will build a missile defense shield over the United States, carry out the “largest deportation in American history” of undocumented migrants, make Trump’s tax cuts permanent and pass “massive tax cuts for working people,” while also seeking to eliminate drug cartels, protect Medicare and social security benefits and defend the use of public money for private school tuition.
All of them are policies Trump championed during his campaign, underscoring his control over the party ahead of next week’s convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, when he will be formally nominated to face President Joe Biden in the Nov. 5 election.
Trump dialed into the platform committee meeting on Monday and spoke for about 15 to 20 minutes, according to Ben Proto, a committee member from Connecticut, where he serves as the state party chairman.
“Virtually everyone on the committee understood that this was his document,” Proto said.
“That’s his vision. It aligns very well, obviously, with a lot of Republican positions.”
Conservatives in the morals field sent a letter to Trump last month urging him to preserve language from previous platforms, calling for a “human life amendment to the Constitution and legislation to make clear that the protections of the Fourteenth Amendment apply to preborn children.”
The new platform doesn’t go that far. It simply says that states are now free to pass laws in accordance with the Constitution and the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to roll back women’s right to abortion and allow states to impose stricter restrictions.
It makes no mention of federal regulations on the abortion pill mifepristone — which some anti-abortion groups also want to restrict — and says the party supports policies promoting in vitro fertilization treatments, contraception and prenatal care.
Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, who warned the Trump campaign last week that its longstanding political alliance with conservatives was at risk if the party adopted a watered-down stance on abortion, said in a statement that the party reaffirmed its commitment to protecting life before birth.
The Biden campaign condemned the platform’s abortion stance as extreme.
“Donald Trump has made it clear through his own words and actions what he will do if he regains power — he will take away women’s freedoms, punish women and ban abortion nationwide,” spokeswoman Sarafina Chitika said in a statement.
The Trump campaign had indicated that it wanted a simpler document than in the past, with a clear definition of Trump’s priorities if elected, without interest group jargon.
“President Trump’s 2024 Republican Party Platform articulates his vision to ‘Make America Great Again’ in a concise and digestible way for all voters,” Trump campaign senior advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles said in a statement.
Source: CNN Brasil
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