Why the New Republican Platform Is Moderate on Abortion

The party platform previously called for a constitutional amendment to protect unborn children. Now, it says abortion should be left to the states.

The Republican Party has changed its official platform on abortion, taking a less extreme position that reflects both former President Donald Trump's statements on the issue and the new political realities.

Previously, the platform called for constitutional changes that would ban abortion nationwide. Now, it says the matter should be left to the states.

Republican National Convention (RNC) delegates approved the amended platform on Monday.

Why Republican Reproductive Rhetoric Is Shifting

The change is interesting for what it says about the shifting politics of abortion in America. A majority of Americans are pretty moderate on this issue, believing neither in abortion without any limits nor in total bans.

Extremist positions on abortion—popular among a segment of the GOP base—were OK so long as Roe governed U.S. abortion laws and total bans had no chance of becoming reality. But in the past two years, since the Supreme Court overturned Roe and some states have enacted strict abortion bans, it's become clear that absolutist positions on abortion are not an election-winning strategy. And we've begun to see some Republican rhetoric change to reflect this.

"The word 'abortion' appeared 35 times in the 2016 Republican platform. It only appears one time in [the 2024] document," notes CNN.

The GOP's new abortion plank certainly isn't pro-choice by any means. But it does express support for the idea that abortion laws should be determined by the people of each state, and it also endorses policies that advance access to birth control and fertility treatments.

That last bit seems deliberately intended to assuage fears—and counter Democratic claims—that Republicans want to go after contraception and in vitro fertilization, too.

A History of GOP Platforms on Abortion

The word abortion first appeared in the Republican Party platform in 1976, according to The Washington Post.

"The question of abortion is one of the most difficult and controversial of our time," the platform said back then. Abortion "is undoubtedly a moral and personal issue" on which Republicans may disagree, it noted, calling for "a continuance of the public dialogue on abortion."

Nonetheless, the '76 platform also professed support for "the efforts of those who seek enactment of a constitutional amendment to restore protection of the right to life for unborn children."

Similar language regarding a constitutional amendment remained in the party platform for decades.

The 2016 platform asserted that "the unborn child has a fundamental right to life which cannot be infringed" and called for "a human life amendment to the Constitution and legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment's protections apply to children before birth."

The party did not adopt a new platform in 2020 because of the pandemic.

What the GOP's New Abortion Plank Says

Here is the 2024 abortion plan in full:

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 yers, 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).

This new platform "still includes language that links abortion to the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, leaving open a path to legislation or court decisions that would grant fetuses additional legal rights," notes The Washington Post.

Besides, party platform language is in no way binding.

Nonetheless, the platform change seems to signal a shift away from embracing one-size-fits-all abortion laws nationwide. That's good news for supporters of reproductive freedom and believers in state's rights.

The Trump Influence

Trump was reportedly "heavily involved" in the party's platform on abortion changing.

Trump himself has shifted his position on abortion over the years. In 1999, he said that while he hated "the concept of abortion," he was "very pro-choice." By 2011, he was calling himself pro-life. And in 2017, he said he strongly supported a 20-week abortion ban nationwide.

But after the Supreme Court overturned Roe, Trump called it a decision that would "work out for everybody," since it "brings everything back to the states, where it has always belonged." In 2023, he criticized the way abortion was "poorly handled" by Republicans who didn't favor exceptions to bans. And, in April, he again suggested it was good that "the states will determine by vote or legislation, or perhaps both."

Whether Trump's more recent statements reflect his personal values or a political calculation is anyone's guess. Ultimately, it doesn't really matter. The GOP is the Trump Party now—where he stands tends to be where the party stands. And where he stands seems to be in personal opposition to abortion but slightly less willing than some members of his party to impose that view on everyone.

Because Trump is such an idiosyncratic political figure, the remaking of the Republican Party in his image tends to be a mixed bag. There aren't a lot of pure bright spots for fans of freedom, to be sure. But every now and then, the faintest glimmer of libertarianism slips in.

Convention Attendees React

At the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this week, reactions to the abortion platform shift have been predictably mixed.

"Delegates repeatedly [said] they agreed with the change," reports Axios:

Axios spoke to 10 delegates from various states on the first night of the RNC.

• Across the board, they expressed their staunch personal anti-abortion rights stance but said they believed abortion laws should be left to the states.
• Delegates from Michigan and New York even admitted they disagree with the abortion policies in their blue states but believed it is important to allow states to adopt their own policies.

Meanwhile, "anti-abortion protesters demonstrating Monday outside the Republican National Convention said they felt out-of-step with the party and former President Donald Trump," notes the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

"The national Republican Party, the RNC and the president ought not to take the pro-life base for granted," said Matt Sande, legislative director for Pro-Life Wisconsin, who was among those who rallied near Haymarket Square Park in downtown Milwaukee.

More Sex & Tech News

• We're looking at four more years of anti-tech antics from the Federal Trade Commission no matter who wins this November.

• Sen. Rand Paul (R–Ky.) on the Department of Justice lawsuit against Apple: It's "not actually about protecting consumers" but "a thinly veiled attempt to accomplish through litigation what Democrats could not get done through legislation."

• Arkansans for Limited Government is suing over the state's rejection of the abortion rights amendment the group is trying to get on the November ballot.

Today's Image

Somerset Bar, Cincinnati | 2022

Comments

[Dillinger]

>>Now, it says abortion should be left to the states.

yes, if for today only "Now" = "Since 1973"

[Kungpowderfinger]

“Why the New Republican Platform Is Moderate on Abortion”
– ENB

[spits coffee out nose]

It’s been one interesting week for Reason and the Democrats, my friends. When you’ve lost Elizabeth Nolan Brown…

[Longtobefree]

"Previously, the platform called for constitutional changes that would ban abortion nationwide. Now, it says the matter should be left to the states."

Well, at least one party reads the supreme court decisions - - - - - -

[Idaho-Bob]

Well, at least one party reads the supreme court decisions

And follows those decisions.

[TJJ2000]

Sure, sure... Now that they've re-written the US Constitution because of "morals" (exact quote from Dobbs). Maybe Biden can get a few more liberal judges to accept executive student loan forgiveness because of the "poor"....

It disgusts me to see so many Republicans stomp all over their principles when it comes to FORCED reproduction.

[Rick James]

Reason article A: LOL *snort* Now that like... the GOP has been remade in Trump's image... LOL *snort*

Reason article II: Whycome abortion been taken out GOP platform, here explainer

[Quo Usque Tandem]

Yep

[Bill Dalasio]

She is pretty clear that that's undoubtedly a major reason for the shift.

[Rick James]

Exactly, we never needed Article A.

[LIBtranslator]

19th Amendment is now enforcing the 9th and 13th Amendments and removing bad jurisprudence which had tried to exclude females from voting under 15A after women born in These States under 14A were declared citizens. Comstockism and its Crash defeated republican mysticism which resorted to a putsch to install Hayes after Tilden won both the popular and electoral votes. A similar riot failed after Trump was defeated in both vote counts, so women's faces are now stamped on with slippers instead of hobnails.

[Think It Through]

There have always been two "conservative" positions on abortion.

CONSTITUTIONAL -- this isn't a federal issue. It should be left to the states.

RELIGIOUS -- it's a baby. No one should be killing it.

As long as Roe existed, the interests of these two groups converged -- overturn Roe v. Wade which is horrible Constitutional law.

Now that Roe is no longer, the two groups still exist, but their interests diverge. "It should be left to the states" is the procedural approach when it is no longer a Constitutional issue.

There, I wrote the same article, much shorter.

[Brett Bellmore]

There's a lot of overlap between those groups, because there's really nothing stopping somebody, (Me, for instance.) from saying that abortion should under most circumstances be a crime, but that the federal government has no general police power, it needs to be a state level crime.

[mad.casual]

+1

Despite ENB’s fervent desires to live in The Republic of Gilead in her head, the Constitutional Amendment argument was never about policing pregnancies nationwide. It was about making sure the US didn’t have things like Buck v. Bell or MAID or Cuban Healthcare-style subsidized murder written as policy.

[Fire up the Woodchippers! (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Exactly. I despise abortion, it I also despise the federalization of law enforcement.

[Minadin]

Even shorter version:

The Republican platform is moderate on abortion because they already won the issue.

[Rick James]

^^^
It's like that and like this and like that and uh...

[Fetterman's Hump]

Yours is better.

[The Margrave of Azilia]

It doesn't bother me to see that there are religious people who oppose abortion because it kills a human being made in the image of God. That's because I'm one of those religious people.

But you don't have to a religious nut like me to oppose abortion. You simply have to (a) understand the concept of a living human being and (b) be a non-fascist who opposes the deliberate destruction of innocent living human beings.

Was Nat Hentoff religious? He opposed abortion.

[TJJ2000]

So how long can this STUPID keep going????

What was Roe v Wade? Was it Federal Legislation?
What was Dobbs? Was it Federal Legislation?

I would explain the obvious again but it appears Pro-Lifers are pretty content on their self-known BULLSH*T.

[LIBtranslator]

Note to foreign readers: "Conservative" means Christian National Socialist bulliers of women. Race Suicide eugenic theories embraced by Teedy Roosevelt, Kaiser Wilhelm and Archduke Ferdinand after Francis Galton's divagations into eugenic (rather than rational) determinants of ethical and moral "traits" form the basis of the belief that women must be forcibly conscripted as breeders. Typically the holders of these beliefs are the sort of males any healthy woman crosses the street to avoid.

[TJJ2000]

In Contrast to the left that makes the Women the 'entitled' bullies.

Maybe the only human asset to a monopoly of Gov-Gun-Force is ensuring Liberty and Justice for all (no matter one's gender).

[Liberty_Belle]

My personal health choices are not the purview of the state nor fed. Abortion is the decision of the people involved and no one else. In the event of a disagreement, the concerns of the host shall take priority over the hosted. Each person should decide for themselves whether abortion is an option or if they want nothing to do with it. The smallest minority is the individual.

[Idaho-Bob]

The smallest minority is the individual fetus.

FTFY

[Thoritsu]

Yes, the smallest minority of cells, not humans.

[Idaho-Bob]

Awesome, I get to decide who is human and kill them with impunity. Afterall, everyone is a just clump of cells.

[Ersatz]

this is the winning argument

i dont see his retort

[TJJ2000]

It really doesn’t matter politically.

You either have a natural god-given ‘inherent’ right to life or you don’t. [WE] mobs don’t decide that one way or the other; they only can chase after people with ‘Guns’, enslave them, and FORCE them to do what they don’t want to do like reproduce.

Laws are there to defend what a person has ‘inherently’ not to go chase them down with ‘Guns’ and TAKE, TAKE, TAKE what they don’t want to give/do.

If Pro-Life wasn't such a power-mad disease they could accept fetal ejection. Defending the rights of the Woman to her body while also defending any natural right to life (if any exists).

But they won't accept the obvious because they're are F'En Nosy and Power-mad and think their purpose in life is to DICTATE what others do in their personal life's.

[Incunabulum]

*You* are just a clump of cells, Comrade.

[TJJ2000]

That has an inherent right to life UNLIKE a Pre-Viable pregnancy.
Thus the very definition of viable.

[Fetterman's Hump]

The shooter just aborted Trump's ear.

[TJJ2000]

A fetus cannot be an 'individual' fetus until it's separated.
Look up the definition of individual.

This is the part that makes the whole subject such a debate.
Pretending something is already there because it can be created.
Why stop at fertilization? Maybe every Egg is a BABY and a period is a murder.... Is it Human? Can it be a Baby? Blah, blah, blah.

It's time for Pro-Life whack-jobs to accept reality and exit their fantasy-land BS.

[Brett Bellmore]

"My personal health choices are not the purview of the state nor fed."

You'll find that there's basically no legal basis for that stance, and regulation of our health care system would be radically different if that were a legal principle.

[TJJ2000]

I wouldn't call the US Constitution being upheld actually 'radical'.
In fact; It's probably exactly the way it should be.

[CE]

Well in California you can't kick out renters even after they stop paying rent. But you can kick out your unborn child up to the last day of the ninth month.

[mad.casual]

But you can kick out your unborn child up to the last day of the ninth month.

Depending on biology, uh, pronouns, YMMV.

Kick out the wrong unborn child without the correct pronouns (I think) or even just preemptively excommunicating them from payroll and the State will abso-fucking-lutely, by law, pursue you anywhere in the 50 States and outlying territories.

[Mother's Lament]

It's amazing that the party of the people that never found an underdog that they wouldn't blindly defend have zero sympathy for the most innocent humans there are. The only innocent humans really. Completely defenseless and conjured out of the ether completely unwilling.

I don't support criminalizing woman who abort their mistakes.

For fucks sake I find it completely incomprehensible that we can't all agree that we should do everything possible to minimize the amount of abortions performed.

[TJJ2000]

My unicorn-baby in you is human too!!!!!! You have no right to ?kill? (well remove) my unicorn-baby that I imagined being in you!!!! Sorry; I OWN YOU because blah, blah, blah my unicorn-baby that I imagine in you……

FFS…. If you cannot even realize a persons own right to their own F’En body you can’t realize any other personal ‘right’ at all. What Individual Right can possibly exist when one’s own F’EN SELF ISN’T OWNED BY THEMSELF……

Pro-Life is so far off base and sick in the head Gov-Gun powermad.

[CLM1227]

What the actual hell? Degeneracy causes brain rot. You know that, right? Maybe just stop spouting idiocy.

[Incunabulum]

You say 'people involved' - but you leave out the father and the child.

[TJJ2000]

What child?
See below.

This is where the LIE, LIE, LIE, LIE until the LIES and IMAGINATIONS become real comes into play.

[Fire up the Woodchippers! (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Right, because a baby is t really human? So murdering family members is now something that should be decided among themselves, and no one else’s business?

[TJJ2000]

What baby?
You can’t just imagine something into existence and expect your crime accusation to hold any more water than an imaginative crime.

[Sympatica]

So if you are in a very dangerous and abusive relationship and you go to a psychiatrist and she agrees that the only solution is killing your partner then your action and choice is between you and your doctor and the rest of us have no say in the matter.
Is your partner a human? Does it matter?
When did your partner become a human?

[TJJ2000]

Doesn't matter. The entire USA history has never given body violations a free pass. If you're going to rape Women expect to get killed and expect her to be freed from your body-violation without a conviction. There isn't much out there that is more PERSONAL than one's own body.

[LIBtranslator]

After being born. See 14A. See also borders and jurisdiction. The U.S. State Department did in fact press this jurisdictional issue to the point of asserting that Christian National Socialist Germany was legally empowered to exterminate actual born and individual Jews over there. Canada shook off Comstockist influence after the Libertarian Party's electoral vote was counted in 1973. Canada and Mexico both recognize that individual women have rights that may not be violated via appeals to hypothetical future political persons.

[LIBtranslator]

A wart on your nose is human, and viable if transplanted to a nose with a similar rejection spectrum. But neither fact endows the wart with constitutional personhood or collectivized rights empowered to disregard and coerce the individual who owns the nose. Collectivized rights are fake, individual rights are real, and superstitious efforts to brand pregnant women as Siamese twins in furtherance of efforts to coerce, enslave or strip them of individual rights are unconstitutional, unamerican, anti-reason and anti-life. https://libertariantranslator.wordpress.com/2024/04/24/republican-coercion-kills-american-women/

[Sometimes a Great Notion]

Because Roe v Wade allowed them to be wishful in their policy position but now that they actually have to govern without it in place, they've moderated to the more mainstream view of limiting abortions to X weeks on demand?

Wonder if that was the reason, maybe I'll read the article.

[Michael Ejercito]

Almost like most pro-life politicians being virtue signalers to their voters.

[Mother's Lament]

It's almost like pro lifers were a coalition and the absolutists weren't the majority or even a plurality.

This might blow your mind, but I don't think any pro lifers want to control anyone's uterus either.

[Fire up the Woodchippers! (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Democrats think that because they’re obsessed with controlling everything else.

[TJJ2000]

"I don’t think any pro lifers want to control anyone’s uterus either."
They should accept the reality of their demands.

If they cannot support fetal ejection.
They're supporting Gov-Gun FORCED reproduction.

[LIBtranslator]

The Texas Libertarian candidate most responsible for restoring our vote share after George Wallace Reaganites instituted the pogrom against all things libertarian explained the constitutional aspects of women being recognized as bearers of individual rights, then stripped, then recognized again: https://constitutionalism.blogspot.com/2007/09/constitutional-views-on-abortion.html

[Quo Usque Tandem]

So much hand wringing today, that the Republican Party has changed. Blowing up minds, apparently.

[LIBtranslator]

Getting bloodied by female voters after trying to enslave them does seem to have had a salutary effect. Ditching Ku-Klux National Socialism instead of temporarily switching masks would better show the lesson was learned. I'm voting for Chase Oliver: https://libertariantranslator.wordpress.com/2024/06/16/lest-we-forget-2/

[Michael Ejercito]

Dems abandoned "My Body, My Choice".

https://reason.com/2021/11/04/the-details-of-oshas-vaccination-order-for-private-employees-suggest-several-ways-it-could-be-vulnerable-to-legal-challenges/

[Rick James]

It was never about my body my choice. And I say that as someone who supports abortion rights... with limits like 75% of the American public.

That was a rhetorical parlor game the Dems played for several decades to make themselves look like the party of individual autonomy. Same with "pro choice". Anyone with a scintilla of intelligence noticed that.

Predicted next article up at Reason... "How Federalism Could Heal a Divided Nation".

[DesigNate]

I see what you did there.

[TJJ2000]

If only the slave-states would've been left alone.
The nation wouldn't have had a civil war.

[TJJ2000]

^THIS...
It's really no surprise that Pro-Life was originated in the Democrat Party.
It's also really no surprise to find out Roe v Wade was written by Republicans.

What is a surprise is the current flip-sides going on today.

[Bertram Guilfoyle]

It's all part of the 15D chess plan for Handmaiden's tale America.

[One-Punch_Man]

Where are all the articles about Newsom's new law that you don't tell parents about pronoun changes? That's ok in Reasons book!

[Bertram Guilfoyle]

Too local.

[CE]

Elon Musk cited the new law as the reason he is moving SpaceX and X headquarters to Texas. Parents are no longer in charge of their children in California, the school district is.

[Longtobefree]

The village will take your child and raise it.

(the more popular translation is incorrect)

[markm23]

Or, "It takes a youth gang to raze a village."

[Rick James]

Yeah, if only it was just about pronouns.

[Thoritsu]

Oh look! A Reason-CNN article noting a positive change, without associating any positivity to it. ENB, you need to learn how to write objectively (or at least in Libertarian terms), even if you aren’t, or you are just one of them.

How about "Trump move Republican party more to the center"?

[Rick James]

Because that article would read about as well as "Democratic politicians offer Hitler well-wishes and hopes for a speedy recovery. 'He is in our prayers'"

[LIBtranslator]

Note to Foreign Readers: Observe that "center" means half Christian National Socialist and half Soviet Socialist looter. Simple-minded fanaticism can barely cope with a stretched monofilament line leading from compulsory altruist collectivism to compulsory altruist mysticism. The idea that two independent choices must lead to four distinct outcomes (as in David Nolan's original chart) evokes only bovine incomprehension from cognitive functions brainwashed into vestigial reactions.

[MollyGodiva]

They have not softened it at all. The inclusion of the 14A is a clear statement that they want to ban abortion everywhere.

They wrote it a bit cagey so that the media would report BS such as "RNC Softens Abortion Position".

[Ersatz]

better check under your bed tonight for the anti-abortion monster!

SCARY!

[Fire up the Woodchippers! (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Sure it is, you dumb bitch. Don’t you ever get tired of being so retardedly stupid?

[DesigNate]

Like shrike, she thinks she’s super intelligent.

[LIBtranslator]

"Women voters cause Christian National Socialist slavers to back off and regroup" is the honest version. The more important thing to nazis is the political power--the time derivative of the capacity to kill people. All enslavement has fundamentally depended on the successful initiation of force. The Army of God now needs to perform more brainwashing of Hitlerjugend, Just-Say-No, Bund Deutscher Mädel and D.A.R.E. kiddies to restock the commentariat with larger hordes of foaming male carpet-biters.

[CE]

What's with today's image?
What do Donald Trump and a group of Planet of the Apes cosplayers have in common?

[mad.casual]

It’s like watching Patrick Mahomes Tom Brady Joe Montana shake off a sack and pull off a 30 yd. completion to drive down the field. And the defense, rather than changing up the players in the secondary or blitzing or switching from zone to a nickel defense… they begin moving the goalposts, redrawing the lines, pretending the other team is crazy for rallying around the QB, and act aloof about why they would be so interested in occupying that end of the stadium like that.

Like the last page of the playbook says, “When all else fails, play retarded.”

[Incunabulum]

Gee, maybe it's because the GOP knows that there's no chance of an amendment and that it turns out .out of the country aren't insane people demanding abortion until birth (or later)?

That most of us are fine with a 12-15 week limit? And we don't use abortion as our primary means of birth control or as a 'sacrament'.

[Fire up the Woodchippers! (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

With the availability of the ‘day after pill’ there should be almost no abortions at this point.

[TJJ2000]

With the very founding ideology of the USA the subject of when one approves of how another manages their own body should be entirely off the political table. If Pro-Life is concerned about protecting a right to life they can easily legislate the method of abortion to be fetal ejection.

[Rick James]

Huh, so I don't brag about my political predictions (or analysis too much) because my record is mixed at best, but it looks like my prediction an analysis was on the right track. I had said that Biden was going to get a talking-to this weekend and apparently that talking-to happened. And as I noted over the weekend, that the assassination derailed what was coming "Biden being handed his hat."

For those who don't want to click through on the video, apparently Biden, during his weekend talking-to went apeshit on the zoom call, rambling, barking, trailing off, with top Democrats ready to pull the Biden Fire Alarm, and then the assassination attempt occurred.

[LIBtranslator]

In this American replay of Petain versus Hitler, note the desperate straining--to the point of planting actual Christian Nazis inside the Libertarian Party to undermine candidate Chase Oliver--to pretend that the only choice you have is to side with the demented looter geezer or the insane looter geezer. The Libertarian platform of 1972 contained the Roe decision rolling back mohammedan and mystical girl-bullying. The Darkening Age is over.

[The Margrave of Azilia]

Many in the Republican base see the Republican party this way:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8j3_DUqKyTk

But I never liked the Republicans, and now they relieved me of any need even to “strategically and reluctantly” vote for them.

[AT]

Eric Trump described it as follows: At the end of the day, this country has holes in the roof and you’ve got to fix those holes and stop worrying about the spot on the wall in the basement.”

Well, here's the problem with that Eric. If you ignore the basement - if your foundation crumbles while you're patching the roof, you're going to lose the whole house. Including the patched roof.

Matthew 7:24-27

[LIBtranslator]

Bronze-Age, flat-Earth, witch-burning superstition makes it pitch for female slavery.

[AT]

Oh look, Hunter found the parmesan cheese again.

[TJJ2000]

What's so funny about Pro-Lifers referencing the 14th is they never establish the right that is suppose to be upheld by it.

How about a 14th rubber-stamp for Universal Healthcare as a right or housing, etc, etc, etc.... Actual humans with inherent rights to life end up dying without those... Not just some unicorn figment of an imagination is some 3rd parties head.

A Pre-viable pregnancy has no inherent right to life to begin with so what possible 'right' is the 14th suppose to enforce????

Because if it did it could be Fetal Ejected and the whole debate would be ended by FACT/REALITY instead of Unicorn imaginations and endless BS meant to FORCE Woman to Reproduce because they have unicorn imaginations and are nosy and powermad.

Roe v Wade was right all along. If you don't have a 'right' inherently you don't have a 'right' at all and an 'entitlement' to someone else's very being (body) is WAY-TO-FAR and is really State's FORCING Women to reproduce.

[TJJ2000]

Or phrased another way…
‘Guns’ don’t inherently make babies anymore than they make other sh*t.

[AT]

How about a 14th rubber-stamp for Universal Healthcare as a right or housing, etc, etc, etc…. Actual humans with inherent rights to life end up dying without those

So what? Healthcare and housing aren't rights.

You seem to want to equate "not intentionally killing someone" with "owing them the means of livelihood." This is typical leftist schlock.

I don't want to see YOU murdered, TJ. But the fact that I don't want that doesn't mean I've suddenly magically assumed some responsibility for your existence. Let alone a decadent lifestyle where all your needs are provided for.

A Pre-viable pregnancy has no inherent right to life to begin with

A pre-viable pregnancy is a tiny human in utero. Humans have a right to life, regardless of where they are or in what stage of development.

Again, with the typical far-left idiocy - by use of the term "pre-viable," you're asserting that the right to life comes with a right to help that life along. It doesn't. It just means you DON'T INTENTIONALLY TAKE IT AWAY.

Now, this puts women in a difficult situation - because "not helping them along" means facilitating their intentional killing. And "not intentionally killing them" means helping them along. To that, the answer is: least harm. Which means, suck it up for nine months buttercup. Let's not ignore the fact that life is almost certainly in there because of your willful actions. Feel free to abandon him the moment he's out, but not a moment sooner. And yes, for all you contributing males - I'm 100% for support upon proof of paternity, regardless of whether mom keeps the kid, or puts him up for adoption. (Yes, I think adoptive parents are owed support by the fathers of an adopted child.)

Incidentally, you - and your argument here - are why losertartians never gain traction. You love to talk about individual rights and liberties - but never responsibilities and accountability. "I support [Action]." [Consequence] is never taken into consideration.

[TJJ2000]

This is where you are 100% wrong. Just because something is 'human' doesn't give it inherent right to life. My fingernails are 'human' do they have an 'inherent' right to life? A right to life exists inherently (look up the definition) when it doesn't require someone else. Same reason there is no right to healthcare.

Exactly what 'act' occurs during a fetal ejection that would qualify as an 'act' of murder. There is none; and that is exactly why Pro-Life is full of sh*t.

If you cannot support ?baby? freedom (i.e. fetal ejection)
UR supporting Gov-Gun Forced reproduction.

It's a violation of the 4th and 13th Amendments. Something Roe v Wade went into detail explaining and Dobbs threw it away by ignorance because of "morals".

[AT]

My fingernails are ‘human’

Your fingernails aren't human beings. Criminy, are we going to have to have a basic biology lesson here?

A right to life exists inherently (look up the definition) when it doesn’t require someone else.

So, anyone in emergency care requiring the assistance of a doctor no longer has a right to life. If you're on bypass, I can come in and legally abort you with a .45 slug right in the brainpan, is that it? You're choking on a piece of grass-fed free-range organic tofu (or whatever it is you twinks eat) - you no longer have a right to life, because you'd require my (or someone else's) help to give you the Heimlich. Where's that .45?

This is so stupid. Stop being stupid.

Exactly what ‘act’ occurs during a fetal ejection that would qualify as an ‘act’ of murder.

The intentional termination of a human life.

[TJJ2000]

If the emergency is life-supporting that is correct.
You DO NOT have a 'right' to healthcare or to enslave doctors.
Nor does a Fertilized Egg have the right to 'seize' a Woman's body.

4th Amendment:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons ... against unreasonable ... seizure, shall not be violated.

You Pro-Lifers make is sound so appalling that closest Family has always had the ability to pull-the-plug. Needless to say; taking it to whole new level on something that has never had a right to life but is instead just a 'pregnancy'.

Power-mad psychopaths who can't mind their own F'En business.

[LIBtranslator]

ATF here (aka Robert Dear) is still selling collectivism as a panacea for getting rid of inconvenient individual rights for women. Comical as it is to ponder a Christian Scientist with someone else's appendicitis, a padded cell is nevertheless in order once the witless Army of God inductee picks up a gun and starts blazing away at women's clinics.

[TJJ2000]

"selling collectivism as a panacea for getting rid of inconvenient individual rights"
+100000... That deserves a repeat.

Having rights to one's own body shouldn't be at the whim of [WE] mob 'democracy'.

[AT]

I'm not 100% certain you were replying to my post. It seems more you were railing in absurdity about some fever dream.

[arpiniant1]

The reason abortion in the platform is downplayed is simple
It is called 'lying'
The republicans have every intention of going after abortion and birth control on a national level and absolutely no intention of leaving it to the states

[LIBtranslator]

Looters are famous for lying, robbing and murdering. Remember Tricky Dick Nixon?

[TJJ2000]

Todays Republican Politician - I agree 100%. Throwing away the Individual Right to commandeer one's own body was just a stepping stone to their own arrogant power-madness.

Republican voters by and large that isn't true. Republican voters consistently polled in favor of keeping Roe v Wade. Republicans of the past WROTE Roe v Wade and ensured that Individual Right to begin with.

[LIBtranslator]

What ENB misses is that the Prohibition Party--the one that made beer a felony narcotic for over 13 years AND pressed for female suffrage--demanded constitutional female re-enslavement as breeder dams. Pretexts varied from TR's War on Race Suicide to fears of black fertility overtaking white supremacy. Canada took the Libertarian lead and repealed all laws forcing women to carry pregnancies to term. America took the uninfiltrated Supreme Court's judgment. The Prohibition party only now dropped its demand for constitutional enslavement and the GOP again apes its decision. https://libertariantranslator.wordpress.com/2018/02/04/canadian-liberals-and-american-libertarians/

[TJJ2000]

FYI:
- Prohibition was mostly a leftard thing.
- The Controlled Substances Act (felony narcotic) was entirely a [D]-trifecta.
- Past Republicans (not Demonrats) are the one’s that made the Roe v Wade ruling.
- The Pro-Life movement started in the Catholic Democrat party.

[Moderation4ever]

Allowing the states to decide is fine if the people in the states get to decide. There seems to be a great deal of reluctance to allow for referendums on the issue, with Republicans preferring gerrymandered legislature to decide.

[TJJ2000]

...because people aren't individuals of course; the only thing that exists is a State Government. /s

UR the second leftard to side with Pro-Life about having the State ([WE] mobs) decide Individual Rights. Which is indeed what leftards are all about; NO-Constitution (stated Individual Rights) just [WE] mob RULES!

[CLM1227]

Nothing wrong with representatives deciding in a democratic republic. Referendums are subject to committee manipulation because the population is predictable in how they vote on referendums. Like in FL, they almost always vote YES. All a committee needs to do is phrase the referendum so YES gets them the result they want.

That’s not informed democracy.

[Moderation4ever]

Nothing wrong with representatives deciding except they don't seem to be reflecting the view of the people.

[TJJ2000]

OR maybe, just maybe the USA isn't a F'En 'democracy' but it is actually a *Constitutional* Republic.