RNC committee approves dropping national limits on abortion from party platform

MILWAUKEE — The Republican Party is abandoning its position explicitly advocating for federal abortion limits in favor of former President Donald Trump’s leave-it-to-the-states approach, under language adopted at a party platform committee meeting Monday.

The platform, which will be finalized by a vote of the full convention body next week, represents a major change for the GOP — and one that anti-abortion advocates had spent months rallying against. The new language describing abortion as an issue to be decided by the states is in line with the position held by Trump. Still, anti-abortion leaders are lauding the inclusion of language pointing to 14th Amendment protections that conservatives have long argued protects life beginning at conception.

The committee was largely deferential to the Trump campaign’s recommendations, receiving and adopting the proposed platform by lunchtime on Monday in a vote of 84 to 18. Trump called in to the meeting and addressed the delegates by phone. A platform committee member granted anonymity to speak candidly about the proceedings said “euphoric consensus” contributed to the quick approval.

Unlike the party’s platform passed in 2016, the text does not include a 20-week federal limit on abortions or call for states to pass the Human Life Amendment, which proposes to amend the Constitution to say that life begins at conception. The text instead says that states are “free to pass laws protecting” the rights granted in the 14th Amendment.

“After 51 years, because of us, that power has been given to the States and to a vote of the People,” the language states. “We will oppose Late Term Abortion, while supporting mothers and policies that advance Prenatal Care, access to Birth Control, and IVF (fertility treatments).”

The heading for that section of the proposed platform says that Republicans will “Protect and Defend a Vote of the People, from within the States, on the Issue of Life.”

Trump didn’t just edit the platform language, but wrote some parts of the 15-page draft himself, according to a person with knowledge of his involvement. The new proposed platform is significantly shorter than the party’s current one.

Representatives from Trump’s campaign walked around the room with a “vote yes” sign as voice votes were being held, and a motion by a top anti-abortion leader to hold roll call votes failed, according to a person attending the meeting. Debate was limited to one minute per speaker. One RNC member who was present inquired about why staff of the Trump campaign and RNC were taking photographs of delegates as they voted.

Trump campaign senior advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles said in a statement that the adopted platform “articulates [Trump’s] vision to Make America Great Again in a way that is concise and digestible for every voter.”

“President Trump will Make America Great Again through these America First principles,” they added.

But some delegates, including Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, aren’t satisfied with the language adopted Monday and are working on submitting a minority report, which they believe is more reflective of where the party’s platform should land on abortion. The report calls for the passage of the Human Life Amendment and more specifically extends 14th Amendment protections to “children before birth.”

“The 2024 platform is a decent statement of campaign priorities, but not necessarily the enduring principles of a party,” Perkins said. “Unfortunately, the process was unbecoming of constitutional conservatives which did not allow the document to be amended or improved.”

Despite the criticisms from Perkins and others, anti-abortion groups are still lining up behind the proposed language.

Ralph Reed, founder and chair of the Faith & Freedom Coalition, argued the language emphasizes both state and federal roles in regulating abortion, calling the platform “unapologetically pro-life.”

“The Republican Party platform makes clear the unborn child has a right to life that is protected by the Constitution under the due process clause of the 14th amendment. That language has been in the GOP platform for 40 years and reflects the view of Ronald Reagan,” Reed said. “While aspirational, it applies to both the states and the federal government. The proposed ban on late term abortion also implies federal as well as state action.”

Some anti-abortion groups praised the removal of the 20-week limit, which they saw as a pre-Roe stopgap policy aimed at preventing some abortions. With Roe gone, they argue such a limit is no longer necessary, even though Democrat-controlled states allow abortions past that point.

“What’s most important here is an acknowledgment of 14th Amendment protections for all Americans, born and preborn,” said Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life. “This is a step in the right direction.”

John Mize, CEO of Americans United for Life, called the language “a more moderate approach to the pro-life issue” and said his organization worked closely with the campaign on “striking a balance” on the text. He said there’s a “healthy number” of anti-abortion groups, including his, he believes will support the language.

“We believe we’ve got to change hearts and minds on this issue before we get to a point where we can begin looking at federal legislation,” Mize said. “A 20-week ban, that’s like 5 percent of abortions. It doesn’t really move the needle.”

The Biden campaign, in a statement, said that Trump has “made it clear with his own words and actions what he will do if he regains power” and that he would “rip away women’s freedoms, punish women, and ban abortion nationwide.”

“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,” said Biden spokesperson Sarafina Chitika.

Prior to the platform’s adoption by the committee, the RNC took unusually aggressive steps to keep the language under wraps, barring delegates from using their phones, strictly controlling the release of drafts and prohibiting the media and most outside observers from attending, according to 10 people with knowledge of the proceedings.

The new rules were criticized by some top party activists. Two delegates to the platform committee called the restrictions “unprecedented,” and one feared the protocols were aimed at limiting public dissent and ramming through a platform that otherwise might not have broad approval.

“The RNC is doing this process behind closed doors because they know that the Republican grassroots would never go for this establishment RINO bullshit,” said the delegate, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about the process.

After seeing the platform text Monday morning, the delegate added that “other than that there’s a fight to be held over the Human Life Amendment, it’s a really good platform. I have no idea why they did all the James Bond stuff.”

The delegate blamed the restrictions on the RNC specifically, and not Trump’s campaign. But the two entities have effectively functioned as one since Trump pushed out former RNC chair Ronna McDaniel earlier this year, replacing her and other top committee leaders with his own selections, among them his senior campaign adviser and his daughter-in-law.

Members of the platform committee, which convened at Milwaukee’s convention center, were forbidden access to phones while inside the meeting, according to several people with knowledge of the new rules who said the devices were placed inside of special bags. And RNC members observing the meeting as guests were also barred from using devices.

Numbered copies of the draft platform were tightly held by members of the platform committee, and hard copies of the language were forbidden from being taken out of the meeting room, according to people with knowledge of the rules.

Frustrations around the platform committee process came as social conservatives feared that the party was poised to backtrack from the more strident anti-abortion position it has held for decades. Evangelical and anti-abortion leaders had pushed the Trump campaign for weeks to not adopt his leave-abortion-to-the-states approach in the official party platform, but instead carve a path that preserves some federal role in setting abortion policy.

Anti-abortion leaders until the platform text leaked mid-morning on Monday had decried efforts to tightly control the process, including the removal of two hardline anti-abortion delegates from the platform committee. An anti-abortion leader, granted anonymity to speak candidly about the platform process, said that the “secrecy” has confirmed that “Trump and his campaign officials are willing to sacrifice the pro-life cause for the sake of their political expediency.”

John Fredericks, a conservative radio host and Trump loyalist on the platform committee, bashed efforts by other social conservative leaders, particularly Perkins, to inundate the RNC with angry calls and emails.

“Their tactics have backfired,” Fredericks told POLITICO, referring to anti-abortion leaders, who have urged activists to contact platform committee members telling them not to water down the party platform on abortion.

“I have gotten 700 of the same email in the last five days. It’s of no value, it’s annoying, and it has backfired,” Fredericks said. “If Tony Perkins was so concerned about getting the language he wanted, then he should have run for president and won the primary.”

The RNC over the last two and a half years, starting under McDaniel’s tenure, began closing its regular committee meetings to press and, at times, kicking reporters out of lobbies and hallways at the hotels where they met. At other times, the RNC opened general sessions to reporters during yearly meetings.

But RNC committee meetings held in conjunction with the party’s quadrennial summer conventions have long been open to reporters, activists and even the public, as the platform meetings were broadcast live on CSPAN. Top anti-abortion leaders decried the change, suggesting that the lack of transparency signaled an effort by the RNC and Trump campaign to circumvent the will of the party’s activist base in drafting the GOP platform.