Delegates approved a party platform Tuesday during the Republican National Convention that bans all abortion. The controversial GOP party plank seeks to overturn the Supreme Court’s decades-old decision in Roe v. Wade by declaring all “unborn children” are protected by the 14th Amendment. It also seeks a “human life amendment” to the Constitution to establish such protection.
Although the GOP has passed a similar resolution at its most recent conventions, this year’s comments by Rep. Todd Akin on rape and abortion thrust the party’s position on the issue into the spotlight.
Party leadership, and the Republican candidate for president Mitt Romney, were questioned in the days leading up to the convention as to whether or not they would allow for exceptions on a blanket ban against abortion in the case of rape and incest. The official platform does not specify any such exceptions.
Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, the man who led the party’s platform committee this year, downplayed the abortion plank when speaking with msnbc host Chuck Todd Wednesday morning from Tampa. “That’s one component of it,” he said.
Indeed. Additional components of the platform include a ban on gay marriage, a push for photo IDs at the voter box, a loosening of gun control rules, and a voucher system for Medicare.
“It’s a grassroots, bottom up exercise [with] lots of input from lots of people,” McDonnell said. “We offer that to the candidates and I think most of it will be embraced.”
The governor argued that the bulk of the platform addresses fiscal and economic issues. The AP has more on this and other party planks approved by the Republican Party Tuesday, the first full day of the convention, including a The document opens by warning that while the American Dream has long been of equal opportunity for everyone, ‘‘Today that American Dream is at risk.’’ It pledges that the GOP will ‘‘begin anew, with profound changes in the way government operates; the way it budgets, taxes and regulates.’’ Read more from the AP here. Or read the full platform as posted to the Republican National Committee’s site.
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