共和党全国委员会的平台委员会周一通过了一项新的共和党平台——它在堕胎问题上软化了措辞，标志着该党的立场发生了转变，与前总统唐纳德·特朗普的观点更加一致。
根据美国广播公司新闻获得的文件，该平台表示，共和党人“将反对晚期堕胎，同时支持母亲和促进产前护理、节育和体外受精(生育治疗)的政策”。
2024年关于堕胎的简要部分还指出，共和党“相信”宪法第14修正案“保证没有人可以在没有正当程序的情况下被剥夺生命或自由，因此各州可以自由通过保护这些权利的法律”——这支持了特朗普的观点，即该问题应该在州一级解决。这与共和党2016年和2020年的平台有所不同，这些平台支持立法，将实施为期20周的联邦堕胎禁令，特朗普在这两个周期都使用了这种语言。
根据RNC发言人的说法，RNC的正式成员将在大会上投票正式确认该平台。该党的代表大会下周在密尔沃基举行。据该委员会成员称，特朗普周一早上参加了会议，并“描述了为什么有些部分在”平台上。据一位熟悉会议的消息人士透露，在会议期间，特朗普还表达了他对共和党新政纲草案的认可。
在平台委员会投票批准一项新的全面改革的政党平台计划以更好地与他的政治姿态保持一致后，特朗普取得了胜利。
“我们的议程是前瞻性的，有着强有力的承诺，当我们赢得白宫和共和党在众议院和参议院的多数席位时，我们将很快完成这些承诺。简而言之，我们是常识党!美国需要各级政府坚定的共和党领导，以应对我们生存的核心威胁，”特朗普在他的社交媒体平台上写道。
然而，《纲要》在整个文件的末尾才提到堕胎。它没有被包括在该平台的20项原则中，这些原则在该语言中排在第一位。其中前两个负责人呼吁“封锁边境”和“执行美国历史上最大规模的驱逐行动。”紧随其后的是“结束通货膨胀”和“让美国成为世界上占主导地位的能源生产国”值得注意的是，美国已经是全球最大的石油生产国。
其他观点包括“对工人大幅减税，小费免税”，“捍卫我们的宪法”，“通过恢复欧洲和中东的和平，防止第三次世界大战”，并结束政府的“武器化”。
一个政党的政纲清楚地概述了它在国内外政策上的立场，但它没有约束力，也不会直接影响当选官员或候选人的工作。
该委员会周一采取行动之际，堕胎仍是选举年选民的一个关键问题，预计特朗普和总统乔·拜登(Joe Biden)之间的竞争将非常激烈。
2016年，共和党-在首次提名特朗普的路上-采取了严格、保守的态度平台围绕性别和性取向问题，反对该党一些较为温和的派系软化这种语言的努力。一个相同的平台在2020年获得批准，当时新冠肺炎疫情使党委难以召集和调整语言。在北卡罗来纳州夏洛特举行的大会上，特朗普第二次被选为该党的提名人。
自20世纪60年代以来共和党的政纲20世纪80年代明确表示支持一项宪法修正案，该修正案将维护人类生命的神圣性和保护，并延伸到未出生的儿童。这是40年来RNC第一次没有在《纲要》中明确支持全国禁止堕胎。
现在，在2024年，共和党将努力最终确定一个平台，这是自两年多前多布斯的决定推翻了堕胎的宪法权利以来的第一次。该计划可能会在建立一个由前总统重塑的政党的理想方面发挥巨大作用，他一直明确反对联邦禁令，并倾向于将这个问题留给各州解决。
特朗普在生育权问题上的立场让一些反堕胎活动人士和RNC成员感到担忧，他们担心今年对“生命权”修正案的呼吁会被剥夺。
投票以84票对14票通过，一名平台委员会成员在投票后接受美国广播公司新闻采访时说，围绕语言有很多“一致意见”，甚至来自一些更具社会保守性的成员，他们一直在口头上反对反映特朗普堕胎立场的平台。
“我们让一大群人站起来，走到麦克风前(在评论环节)。在很大程度上，事情真的很乐观。人们很高兴看到这份文件，”这位成员说。
投票结束后，SBA反堕胎美国总统Marjorie Dannenfelser -一位主要的反堕胎领导人，也是今年就该平台游说特朗普团队的个人之一-发表了一份支持该文件的声明。
“重要的是，共和党今天通过第14修正案重申了其保护未出生生命的承诺。根据这项修正案，国会颁布并执行其条款。共和党在国家层面仍然强烈支持堕胎。未来六个月，反堕胎运动的使命必须是挫败拜登-哈里斯极端堕胎议程，”Dannenfelser写道。
“这个平台使我们能够向1000万选民提供获胜的信息，在关键的战场州有400万次访问，”Dannenfelser补充说。
但其他人，包括来自犹他州的共和党全国委员会平台成员盖尔·鲁齐卡(Gayle Ruzicka)告诉美国广播公司(ABC)下属的WISN，她对平台投票如何“强迫”委员会成员以及它如何处理堕胎感到失望。
“我非常失望，我们没有任何反堕胎的语言。这个平台里有好东西。…这是我们第一次没有反堕胎平台。政纲只是说我们反对晚期堕胎。嗯，那之前呢?”鲁齐卡说。
周一下午投票结束后，在威斯康星州沃克夏的一次政治活动中，RNC主席迈克尔·沃特利(Michael Whatley)消除了该平台在堕胎问题上软弱的看法。
“我们有一个非常坚实的反堕胎平台。我们对此感到非常、非常坚定。我认为你可以看看来自全国各地的反堕胎团体的数量，他们已经进来并表示强烈支持这个平台。听着，共和党代表生命。我们将永远支持生活。我认为，当你看到这个平台时，你会发现它非常亲美。很亲家庭。这是非常反堕胎的。我们对我们所拥有的语言非常有信心，”沃特利说。
拜登竞选团队对共和党平台在堕胎问题上软化的语言做出了回应，强化了他们的立场，即如果特朗普重新当选总统，他不会在这个问题上持温和态度。
拜登-哈里斯2024发言人沙拉菲娜·奇蒂卡在一份声明中说:“尽管特朗普和他的团队尽了最大努力，但美国人民清楚他会在多大程度上剥夺他们的自由——他们将在今年11月相应地投票。”。
“唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)已经用自己的言论和行动表明，如果他重新掌权，他会做什么——剥夺女性的自由，惩罚女性，在全国范围内禁止堕胎。你不必从我们这里拿走，从特朗普本人那里拿走:他为“杀死”罗诉韦德案而“自豪”，并发布了对强奸或乱伦毫无例外的极端禁令，他称之为“值得一看的美丽事物”他承诺将带头在全国范围内禁止堕胎，并表示他将与希望完全禁止堕胎的极端分子并肩战斗。特朗普本人表示，女性应该因为堕胎而受到惩罚，医生应该因为工作而被定罪，他正在考虑对节育的限制，”她补充道。
RNC committee adopts GOP's 2024 policy platform -- including on abortion
The Republican National Committee's platform committee adopted a new GOP platform on Monday -- and it softens language on the issue of abortion, marking a shift in the party's stance to more closely align with the views of former President Donald Trump.
The platform says that Republicans "will oppose Late Term Abortion while supporting mothers and policies that advance Prenatal Care, access to Birth Control, and IVF (fertility treatments)," according to the document obtained by ABC News.
The 2024's brief section on abortion also states that the GOP "believes" that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution "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" – bolstering Trump's view that the issue should be determined at the state level. That's a change from the GOP's 2016 and 2020 platforms that supported legislation that would have imposed a 20-week federal abortion ban -- language that Trump ran on both cycles.
Full RNC membership will vote to officially confirm the platform from the convention floor, according to an RNC spokesperson. The party's convention takes place next week in Milwaukee. Trump dialed into the meeting Monday morning and "described why some parts are in" the platform, according to the committee member. During the meeting, Trump also expressed his approval of a draft of the new Republican Party platform, according to a source familiar with the meeting.
Trump took a victory lap after the platform committee voted to approve a new overhauled party platform plan to better align with his political posture.
“Ours is a forward-looking Agenda with strong promises that we will accomplish very quickly when we win the White House and Republican Majorities in the House and Senate. We are, quite simply, the Party of Common Sense! America needs determined Republican Leadership at every level of Government to address the core threats to our very survival,” Trump wrote on his social media platform.
The platform's mention of abortion, however, came near the end of the full document. It is not included as part of the platform's 20 principles that are prioritized first in the language. The first two of those principals call to "seal the border" and "carry out the largest deportation operation in American history." Those are followed by "end inflation" and "make America the dominant energy producer in the world." Notably, the U.S. is already the top global oil producer.
Other points include "large tax cuts for workers and no tax on tips," "defend our constitution," "prevent World War III" by restoring peace in Europe and the Middle East and putting an end to "weaponization" of the government.
A political party's platform distinctly outlines its positions on foreign and domestic policies, but it is not binding and doesn't directly impact the work of elected officials or candidates.
Monday's move by the committee comes as abortion remains a key issue for voters in an election year in what is expected to be a close race between Trump and President Joe Biden.
In 2016, the Republican Party -- on their way to nominating Trump for the first time -- adopted a strict, conservativeplatformaround issues of gender and sexual orientation against the efforts by some of the party's more moderate faction to soften that language. An identical platform was approved in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic made it difficult for party committees to convene and adjust language. During that convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, Trump was chosen as the party's nominee for a second time.
The Republican platform since the1980shas articulated support for a constitutional amendment that would assert the sanctity and protection of human life, extending to unborn children. This is the first time in 40 years that the RNC has not explicitly endorsed a national ban on abortion in the platform.
Now, in 2024, the GOP will work to finalize a platform for the first time since the Dobbs decision overturned the constitutional right to an abortion more than two years ago. The plan could play an outsized role in establishing the ideals of a party reinvented by the former president, who has been clear about his opposition to a federal ban and his preference for this issue to be left up to the states.
Trump's position on reproductive rights has worried some anti-abortion activists and RNC members who have expressed concern that the call for a "right to life" amendment would be stripped from the platform this year.
A platform committee member who spoke with ABC News following the vote, which passed 84-14, said there was a lot of "unanimity" around the language, even from some of the more socially conservative members who have been vocally opposing a platform reflective of Trump's abortion stances.
"We had a whole bunch of people stand up and go the microphone [during a comment section]. And for the most part, things were really quite upbeat. People were happy to see this document," the member said.
Following the vote, SBA Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser -- a major antiabortion leader and one of the individuals lobbying the Trump team about the platform this year -- released a statement supporting the document.
"It is important that the GOP reaffirmed its commitment to protect unborn life today through the 14th Amendment. Under this amendment, Congress enacts and enforces its provisions. The Republican Party remains strongly pro-life at the national level. The mission of the pro-life movement, for the next six months, must be to defeat the Biden-Harris extreme abortion agenda," Dannenfelser wrote.
"The platform allows us to provide the winning message to 10 million voters, with four million visits at the door in key battleground states," Dannenfelser added.
But others, including Gayle Ruzicka, a Republican National Committee platform member from Utah, told ABC affiliate WISN that she was disappointed with how the platform vote was “forced” on committee members and with how it handled abortion.
"I'm extremely disappointed that we do not have any pro-life language. There are good things in this platform. … This is the first time we don't have a pro-life platform. The platform simply says that we oppose late-term abortion. Well, what about before that?” Ruzicka said.
At a political event in Waukesha, Wisconsin, following the vote on Monday afternoon, RNC Chairman Michael Whatley dispelled notions that the platform was weak on the issue of abortion.
"We have a very solid pro-life platform. We feel very, very solid about it. I think you can just look at the number of pro-life groups from across the country that have come in and said that they strongly support this platform. Look, the Republican Party stands for life. And we are always going to stand for life. I think when you look at this platform, you're going to see that it is very pro-America. It is very pro-family. It is very pro-life. And we feel very strong about the language that we have," Whatley said.
The Biden campaign responded to the GOP platform's softened language on abortion by reinforcing their stance that Trump, should he regain the presidency, would not be moderate on the issue.
"Despite Trump and his team’s best efforts, the American people are clear on just how far he would go to rip away their freedoms – and they’ll vote accordingly this November," Biden-Harris 2024 Spokesperson Sarafina Chitika said in a statement.
“Donald Trump has made it clear with his own words and actions what he will do if he regains power – rip away women’s freedoms, punish women, and ban abortion nationwide. You don’t have to take it from us, take it from Trump himself: He’s ‘proud’ to have ‘killed’ Roe v. Wade and unleashed extreme bans with no exceptions for rape or incest, which he calls ‘a beautiful thing to watch.’ He promised to be ‘leading the charge’ to ban abortion nationwide, and said he’d fight ‘side by side’ with extremists who want to ban abortion entirely. Trump himself said that women should be punished for having an abortion, that doctors should be criminalized for doing their jobs, and that he’s ‘looking at’ restrictions on birth control," she added.
