'Pledge of Allegiance' to Trump: Draft RNC platform spins abortion and LGBTQ issues

08 July 2024

The Republican National Committee’s draft 2024 platform, which reportedly is a “scaled-down” version of the last one it published, in 2016, has been approved by Donald Trump and includes strong stances against support for transgender people, while paving the road for so-called fetal personhood and reportedly “softening” the party’s position on abortion.

“The primary goal is a ‘short form’ 2024 document that is a pledge of allegiance to former President Donald J. Trump rather than the statement of party values the platform has traditionally been, according to interviews with a dozen platform representatives and other Republicans,” The New York Times reports, calling it “A Republican Platform That Could Read Like a Trump Rally.”

The platform, which will be voted on later this week, “stops short of explicitly calling for a constitutional amendment to give embryos or fetuses constitutional rights and does not call for any national bans on abortion, confirming the concerns of antiabortion activists,” The Washington Post reports.

Trump has called for “punishment” of women who obtain abortions, which he did in 2016, and recently said states have the right to punish the doctors who perform them. The ex-president has repeatedly bragged about taking away the constitutional right to abortion, saying in May, “I was able to kill Roe v. Wade.”

Just four weeks ago Trump urged a Christian organization that opposes all abortion, for any reason, to stand up for “innocent life,” as The Associated Press reports.

The draft language on abortion in the RNC platform reads:

“We proudly stand for families and life. 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 and that the states are, therefore, free to pass laws protecting those rights. After 51 years, because of us, that power has been given to the states and to a vote of the people. We will oppose late term abortion while supporting mothers and policies that advance prenatal care, access to birth control, and IVF (fertility treatments).”

Some have called the portion on abortion, “Nonsensical.”

The draft language also attacks the rights of transgender people.

While it “stops short of seeking to bar parents from seeking medical treatment for minor children,” The Post reports, it “condemn[s] any taxpayer funding of such procedures.”

“We will keep men out of women’s sports, ban taxpayer funding for sex change surgeries, and stop taxpayer-funded schools from promoting gender transition, reverse Biden’s radical rewrite of Title IX education regulations, and restore protections for women and girls,” it says.

It also removes language on same-sex marriage, which the RNC has officially opposed.

“’Republicans will promote a culture that values the sanctity of marriage, the blessings of childhood, and the foundational role of families, and supports working parents,’ it says instead. ‘We will end policies that punish families.’ ”

It does not say “all families,” and, just as with its language on abortion, it provides room to later specify same-sex marriages are not included.

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