Posted on 07/12/2024 9:53:21 PM PDT by Morgana
The Republican National Committee’s 2024 stance on abortion is the worst platform plank he’s ever seen, pro-life advocate Tom McClusky said Wednesday at the National Conservatism Conference in Washington.
McClusky, principal at public affairs firm Greenlight Strategies LLC, said that this week was a dark one for the pro-life movement in a panel discussion, “Beyond Dobbs.” That’s a reference to Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the June 2022 Supreme Court abortion decision that overturned Roe v. Wade.
The RNC’s 2024 platform betrays the pro-life founders of the Republican Party, he said.
“If the Republican Party weakens, I’m standing on the shoulders of people who fought for decades to make the Republican Party pro-life,” McClusky said.
The RNC’s Platform Committee adopted former President Donald Trump’s GOP platform, the Trump campaign announced on Monday, including new language on abortion and on protection of the unborn.
That new platform’s abortion language is a significant departure from the party’s life messaging in 2016, which was largely replicated in 2020, since it no longer calls for federal protections for unborn babies and instead suggests that the issue is up to the states. The 2016 platform included the word “abortion” 35 times, while the 2024 platform merely includes abortion once.
“It appears that there is little courage or appetite among our national leaders to try to protect unborn Americans with new federal laws,” said Katy Talento, a former policy adviser for President Donald Trump and CEO at AllBetter Health, a firm that helps employers navigate health plan benefits.
Abortion is not just a state issue, as the RNC platform suggests, McClusky said, because the federal government is not neutral on it. More than $1 billion a year goes to the abortion industry nationally and internationally to help promote, subsidize, and perform abortions, he said.
The Biden administration “is not just pro-abortion,” McClusky said. “It lives and breathes abortion. It is their religion. They want to take out us. They want to take out our children. So, there is a federal role right there.”
“States can fight against the abortion drug, but the abortion drug is promoted by the United States Postal Service—that is under federal jurisdiction,” he added. “That is why the federal government needs to get involved.”
Politicians should read the Food and Drug Administration label on the abortion pill before advocating for it being available on demand, Talento said.
“The next woman bleeding out in a fetal position could be their daughter or granddaughter,” she said.
“It’s time to take seriously the dangerous risks of this powerful, toxic chemical,” Talento added, asserting that 1 in 20 women end up in a hospital emergency room after taking the abortion pill.
The Biden administration has transformed “every agency into Planned Parenthood,” she said, adding that a second Trump administration could reverse President Joe Biden’s radically pro-abortion agency guidelines, she said.
“Those will all have to be reversed,” Talento said, “and there’s simply no avoiding it.”
Correction: This article has been edited to remove a reference to Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., supporting mifepristone. Rubio opposes the abortion pill.
He may be right. It might keep many hard core conservatives away. Or does he think making this compromise might bring leftists and moderates over to our side?
Senator Josh Hawley made the point quite clear about Dobbs recently...
Hawley: If Republicans Stop Fighting for Life at the Federal Level, then Dobbs Changed ‘Nothing’
The Washington Stand ^ | July 12, 2024 | Suzanne Bowdey
They will strike down any federal law that passes either way for or against.
Will they? They've had two years to do this and nothing. The article goes on to say how FedGov still has laws and policies in place advocating, supporting and even funding abortion.
In your post 19, you seem to fret a lot about what pro-choice people might do. Well let me tell you what they'll do. Putting aside their preferences, they will look at a strong able leader vs. a weak demented failure, and they'll vote for Trump.
Hawley is right. Dobbs didn't go far enough in solving this abortion crisis. SCOTUS - like Trump - are ignoring the matter.
Earlier today a FReeper posited.... Roe was the 2nd worse decision in SC history and only surpassed as the 2nd worse by its first, its reversal.
I'm not sure if I agree or disagree with this, but it is food for thought.
By that argument, everything should be made a federal issue.
I think the challenge for pro-life is to work state by state to change minds and law…eat that elephant one bite at a time. The alternative was the all in by Dems on the Federal level.
We need to fight this state by state I am extremely pro life HOWEVER if we don’t soften our stance on this we will NEVER change minds!! The thing that kills me is Libs SCREAMING about my body my choice UNLESS they are going to force experimental shots on you THEN the whole stance flys out the window HYPOCRISY at its finest!! Abortion is the consistent baseball bat they WIN elections with if we don’t soften our stance on this WE WILL NEVER win the battle!! Legislation on this being up to the states is the correct stance if you want to use abortion as birth control move to NY or CA.
The challenge is that groups are creating and pushing constitutional changes to enshrine abortion in each state. Once that is set it will be quite difficult to limit or ban abortions.
Agreed.
There is no abortion crisis. States and their voters can decide what they as a electorate want to fund and allow. Making angry a large number of your voter’s is not a good way to win an election. Since there is no laws defining federal power on this issue the tenth amendment means it’s a state right issue. The feds can fund or not fund what they choose the states can take the money or not that’s again their choice.
Federalism is designed to have 50 different sovereign states one size fits no one and local control is always better than people 2000 miles away. A good portion of pro choice people also want secure borders, ending the fiscal madness , and sane energy policies. Broadening the base how to get to the big house. Alienating two generations of people who dont have the same moral issues as the boomers do is a recipe for failure. <<< this is the core of the issue. Like it or not GenX,GenY,GenZ do not have the same religious beliefs as the olders and never .
There is not enough right wing puritans to put Trump in the White House there just is not. Trump knows this and is willing to let go of some of the far right and gain much needed in the middle in states he needs to win. Losing people in Florida that are already in a deep red state to gain delegates in Michigan or Pennsylvania is a winning play. The zealots don’t like it but it is the right political move to make.
Trump needs moderates and independents, but he can’t afford to lose his pro-life base. Pro-lifers have been part of winning coalition’s since Reagan. If the Republicans lose even half of the pro-life base then you can kiss any Presidential election goodbye.
“The challenge is that groups are creating and pushing constitutional changes to enshrine abortion in each state. Once that is set it will be quite difficult to limit or ban abortions.”
This means the people have spoken and it is the will of the electorate. It’s text book fascism to use government against the will of the people to push a minority agenda directly against the will of voters. Most states require a substantial majority to amend a constitution some do not either way it is the will of the people who live in that state. Don’t like it well the founders had a solution for that freedom of movement, move to where people match your desired ideology.
In two election cycles or less this issue will be over as each State will have put into laws where the majority of the voters stand. At that point freedom of movement is the way. This election is critical because of more pressing issues the wide open border with military aged males streaming across and our proxy war with Russia is way WAY more important than abortion in California or Florida or New York. Trump knows this he needs independents in battleground states that’s just how it is.
Interesting. I will take a look at this.
I would say you are wrong Lots of people will say Oh I am pro life to avoid social scrutiny then given the actual ballot choice will privately vote pro choice Kansas, for one and , Florida is about too as well. I would be shocked if Florida measure doesn’t pass. The fact is 60+% are in favor of at least 12 to 15 weeks some polls show higher. I know tons of fiscal conservatives, nationalists and America first who are pro-choice all young to early middle age professionals with high education attainment. If Texas put choice on the ballot it would pass here for sure. Since we don’t have referendum the choice then is vote out the incumbents who passed one of the most restrictive laws in the country or leave the incumbents in since the primary is over that’s the choice. In my social circle it’s about 50/50 for people who are usually solid red voters the younger ones are all voting blue on this issue alone, girlfriends and wives have much sway plus no one wants to go to Kansas if the birth control fails. Remember these are pro-choice people who happen to be right of middle to begin with. So it’s better to have referendum so you don’t have to punish politicians who voted against your will on just one issue. Make no mistake young women are single issue voters on this and so are thier partners.
Yes, abortion will become a medical issue. The political aspect to resolve is whether federal funds and facilities are used, whether there is any notification for girls under 18, whether there is a requirement to consult the father, whether there is any counseling on alternatives, etc. Also, federal or state regulation—e.g., a licensed doctor, facility, staff, and everything to make it “safe”.
Yes as it always should have been. Local control, local government regulations. People talk about the war between the States like it solved anything. All it did was prove that military might can force a large group of people to be subjects of an out of control Federal government. The current out of control fedzilla is directly the product of that conflict. Had the North let the South leave the Union would likely have been restored in a decade or less and we wouldn’t have a fed based tyranny but 50 sovereign states still. What California does locally is of no concern to Texans and those who want to make it a concern are from the same tyrannical fascist cloth as every other group that wants to control other people lives from afar for some ideological reason. All forms of that should be crushed with deadly force if need be. Texas for Texans and California for Californians that’s what our founders intended.
The dems understand incrementalism.
We are where we are due to their chipping away a little at at time until they get what they want.
If you are a purist and lose right up front, what good have you done?
Virtue signalling might feel good but losing gets one nowhere.
The real key to this problem isn't forcing behavior by political thuggery anyway.
It is educating women so they won't want to have abortions.
Taken literally, a woman may have the right to kill her baby, but should that confer to the doctor?
Win the battles we can."
Agree. All I've ever seen the abortion issue do is get good candidates for public offices defeated by vermin. It's the main thing that keeps the demopoop party alive.
“You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time”.
Sounds noble but the path you are promoting will deliver neither. I see nothing to gain by trying to batter people with your beliefs and everything to lose. Roe v Wade was ended because of political power, through Trump’s commitment. You make it sound as though there is a path to decreasing abortions by throwing away an election. That is false. Fight smart and fight incremental or destroy any hope of success.
A lot of people don’t believe in the Catholic life at conception and therefore legal murder from day one. It’s not defined in federal law and some states have moved to define when exactly that point is. From an equal protection under the 14th it should be defined and then equally enforced. I think most people would agree that after 20 weeks or so viability becomes virtually certain and if someone kills the mother than they also should be charged with two homicides. This is also the point a lot of people say only for the life of the mother should any medical procedure be performed and if the viable child can be saved then it should be the choice then is no questions asked surrender of the child to CPS just like a baby drop box surrender. 12 weeks 15 there is zero possibility of viability so a different legal issue entirely. I don’t concern myself with other people’s mortality or religion in fact I could careless about either. Each state save for a constitutional amendment defining the scientific point of viability and protection of life after that point in federal level homicide law will have to let the voters decide. Local is always best when society must come together and define law based on the cultures moral and societal norms. These change over time and should be revisited when they do.
That’s silly. You create an unreal dichotomy. I never understand people who think that if they just keep pushing their agenda everyone will submit. You have your belief they have theirs. The point is, major gains have been made but only through electing Trump.
Now I hear people elections are not the path. That is not rational. Saving babies is not just rhetoric & in your face.
The monster is now state size not the whole Country. The path is political, winning hearts, opening minds and support for women & families. It’s much easier to march once a year and pray at abortion clinics than it is the get involved locally, but local involvement is the next arena. There will always be abortions as there are even in the small number of countries where they are completely illegal. The key to decreasing abortion is for people to understand the damage to the woman, the family, the society and the unjustifiable cruel taking of a life. It is a choice and criminalizing that choice will not eliminate abortions.
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