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.”









