MILWAUKEE (AP) — The Republican National Committee’s platform committee has adopted a policy document that reflects former President Donald Trump’s position opposing a federal abortion ban and ceding limits to states, omitting the explicit basis for a national ban for the first time in 40 years. The committee adopted a draft platform Monday asserting, “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.” The document, obtained by The Associated Press, also noted "that the states are, therefore, free to pass laws protecting those rights.
” The document sticks to the party's longstanding principle that the Constitution extends rights to the unborn, but removes language maintaining support for an “amendment to the Constitution and legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to children before birth,” a passage in the party platform first included in 1984. The move comes as Trump imposes his priorities on the committee as he seeks to steer clear of strict abortion language, even while taking credit for setting up the 2022 reversal of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court.
Trump appointed three of the six justices who voted in the majority to overturn the 1973 abortion rights precedent. The abortion language was first reported by The New York Times. Marjorie Dannenfelser, SBA Pro-Life America president, praised the committee for reaffirmi.
