By Peyton Majors
Christian Action League
July 12, 2024
A large group of pro-life leaders on the state and national level is urging Republican Party delegates to reject a new platform that guts long-held pro-life positions on abortion, asserting the new stance is antithetical to the party’s core values and its base of conservative voters.
Among them is Rev. Mark Creech, executive director of the Christian Action League, who says the new platform is a “profound betrayal of Christian beliefs and moral principles.”
The 2024 platform, passed Monday with support from presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, is the first GOP platform since 1972 not to endorse federal protections for the unborn and the first since 1980 not to endorse a human life amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The 2024 platform committee gutted language from the 2016 platform that read, “We assert the sanctity of human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental right to life which cannot be infringed.” Similar language had been in Republican platforms since 1984.
In fact, the new platform does not even mention the “unborn” — the first time that has happened since 1972.
Republican Party delegates will meet in Milwaukee July 15-18.
The 2024 platform says abortion is an issue for the states. Although it opposes late-term abortion, it says nothing of early-term and mid-term abortions that constitute the overwhelming majority of abortions.
The new platform also endorses contraceptives and in vitro fertilizations — two practices that are contentious among some conservatives.
“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,” the platform says. “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).”
The platform committee also removed language opposing same-sex marriage, an issue that first entered a Republican platform in 1992. (A Trump spokesperson said in 2019 he supported same-sex marriage.)
The new platform is silent on the issue.
Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council was one of 19 members of the platform committee who opposed the platform and issued a minority report criticizing the committee for not allowing amendments. The minority report said the party must not abandon the pro-life movement.
“In no season, under no rationale spurred by the exigencies of a political moment, can or should we abandon the high principles that have created and sustained this party, with God’s grace, into a third century,” the report said.
“As Bible-believing Christians,” Perkins said this week, “we must stand for truth.”
On Friday, six national pro-life leaders — including Live Action’s Lila Rose, March for Life Action’s Jeanne Mancini and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary’s Albert Mohler — signed a letter urging GOP delegates to amend the platform and reject it if it stays as-is.
“The eyes of conservatives across America are upon you,” the letter reads. “… You can restore the RNC’s pro-life platform.”
Former Vice President Mike Pence also encouraged delegates to take action.
“I urge delegates attending next week’s Republican Convention to restore language to our party’s platform recognizing the sanctity of human life and affirming that the unborn child has a fundamental right to life which cannot be infringed,” Pence said.
“The updated platform … cedes this fight to the states, leaving the unborn in California and Illinois to the far-left’s extremist abortion policies,” Pence said. “The right to life is not only a state issue; it is a moral issue, and our party must continue to speak with moral clarity and compassion about advancing the cause of life at the federal, state and local level.”
Several GOP legislators have spoken out against the platform, including U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri.
“We have been a pro-life platform since 1976,” Hawley said. “… My concern is this platform seems to walk away from that.”
Creech, the executive director of the Christian Action League, said the battle for the unborn is far from over. The Republican platform, he said, supports that which God opposes.
“To soften the GOP platform on abortion and same-sex marriage is akin to crucifying Christ afresh,” Creech said. “Abortion, the taking of innocent life, and same-sex marriage, a deviation from the traditional, God-ordained institution of marriage between one man and one woman, are issues that cut to the very heart of Christian convictions.
“Christ’s sacrifice on the cross was the ultimate act of redemption. One needs only to look at the cross of Christ to know how much God values life. To compromise on these core tenets is to disregard the sanctity of His sacrifice – the sanctity of life. It is a grievous error, worse still, a grievous sin to dilute one’s stance on these critical issues for political expediency or societal validation.”
The Republican Party, Creech said, “needs to stand firm, upholding the sanctity of life from conception to natural death and preserving the traditional definition of marriage.”
“Anything less than standing resolute, unflinchingly respecting life from conception to natural death, and working to preserve the traditional definition of marriage is to place Christ on the cross again, fastening him to it with the nails of convenience, conformity, and compromise,” Creech said. “Scripture warns us of the consequences of straying from God’s commandments. Isaiah 5:20, says, ‘Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.’
“Those who constructed this platform in secrecy, away from the light of honest and open debate, are no different from Judas Iscariot, who conspired with the authorities of his day and betrayed his Master for thirty pieces of silver. In Matthew 26:14-16, Judas’s betrayal is a stark reminder of the dangers of prioritizing personal or political gain over divine truth.
“This is a horrible thing Republicans have done,” Creech said, “and I can assure you that God sees it.”
