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http://www.gop.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/2012GOPPlatform.pdf

[excerpts]

The First Amendment: The Foresight of Our Founders to Protect Religious Freedom

The first provision of the First Amendment concerns freedom of religion. That guarantee reflected Thomas Jefferson’s Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, which declared that no one should “suffer on account of his religious opinion or belief, but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinion in matters of religion….” That assurance has never been more needed than it is today, as liberal elites try to drive religious beliefs—and religious believers—out of the public square. The Founders of the American Republic universally agree that democracy presupposes a moral people and that, in the words of George Washington’s Farewell Address, “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.”

The most offensive instance of this war on religion has been the current Administration’s attempt to compel faith-related institutions, as well as believing individuals, to contravene their deeply held religious, moral, or ethical beliefs regarding health services, traditional marriage, or abortion. This forcible secularization of religious and religiously affiliated organizations, including faith-based hospitals and colleges, has been in tandem with the current
Administration’s audacity in declaring which faithrelated activities are, or are not, protected by the First Amendment—an unprecedented aggression repudiated by a unanimous Supreme Court in its Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC decision.

We pledge to respect the religious beliefs and rights of conscience of all Americans and to safeguard the independence of their institutions from government. We support the public display of the Ten Commandments as a reflection of our history and of our country’s Judeo-Christian heritage, and we affirm the right of students to engage in prayer at public school events in public schools and to have equal access to public schools and other public facilities to accommodate religious freedom in the public square. We assert every citizen’s right to apply religious values to public policy and the right of faith-based organizations to participate fully in public programs without renouncing their beliefs, removing religious symbols, or submitting to government-imposed hiring practices. We oppose government discrimination against businesses due to religious views. We support the First Amendment right of freedom of association of the Boy Scouts of America and other service organizations whose values are under assault and condemn the State blacklisting of religious groups which decline to arrange adoptions by same-sex couples. We condemn the hate campaigns, threats of violence, and vandalism by proponents of same-sex marriage against advocates of traditional marriage and call for a federal investigation into attempts to deny religious believers their civil rights.

..The Sanctity and Dignity of Human Life

Faithful to the “self-evident” truths enshrined in the declaration of Independence, we assert the sanctity of human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed. We support a human life amendment to the Constitution and endorse legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to unborn children. We oppose using public revenues to promote or perform abortion or fund organizations which perform or advocate it and will not fund or subsidize health care which includes abortion coverage. We support the appointment of judges who respect traditional family values and the sanctity of innocent human life. We oppose the nonconsensual withholding or withdrawal of care or treatment, including food and water, from people with disabilities, including newborns, as well as the elderly and infirm, just as we oppose active and passive euthanasia and assisted suicide.

Republican leadership has led the effort to prohibit the barbaric practice of partial-birth abortion and permitted States to extend health care coverage to children before birth. We urge Congress to strengthen the Born Alive Infant Protection Act by enacting appropriate civil and criminal penalties on healthcare providers who fail to provide treatment and care to an infant who survives an abortion, including early induction delivery where the death of the infant is intended. We call for legislation to ban sex-selective abortions – gender discrimination in its most lethal form—and to protect from abortion unborn children who are capable of feeling pain; and we applaud U.S. House Republicans for leading the effort to protect the lives of pain-capable unborn children in the District of Columbia. We call for a ban on the use of body parts from aborted fetuses for research. We support and applaud adult stem cell research to develop lifesaving therapies, and we oppose the killing of embryos for their stem cells. We oppose federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.

We also salute the many States that have passed laws for informed consent, mandatory waiting periods prior to an abortion, and health-protective clinic regulation. We seek to protect young girls from exploitation through a parental consent requirement; and we affirm our moral obligation to assist, rather than penalize, women challenged by an unplanned pregnancy. We salute those who provide them with counseling and adoption alternatives and empower them to choose life, and we take comfort in the tremendous increase in adoptions that has followed Republican legislative initiatives. [end excerpts GOP 2012 Platform]

You can believe (as I do) in those lofty words of the GOP platform OR you can support Romney. You cannot rationally do both. Romneycare contains even worse persecution of religious institutions than does Obozocare. Romneycare does not, as I understand it, provide ANY exemption for direct employees of a religious denomination. Obozocare does provide a verrrry narrow exception but not in any way acceptable in the context of Obozocare.

Both of the major party disgraces in this year's election seek and have sought to persecute religion, specifically pro-life religions. Both would require Catholic bishops (and other pro-life religious leaders) to sell their souls on the installment plan with each insurance premium check for "medical care" that they write by impermissibly packaging moral outrages like abortion, sex change operations and what not with quite moral coverage like diabetic care, cancer care, cardiovascular care, etc. Each time a Catholic bishop signs such a check or causes it to be signed is a mortal sin. He has a choice: life in prison on the installment plan, resign as bishop or spend eternity in hell. What was that about the First Amendment again???

It was morally permissible to overlook Rick Perry's gubernatorial blunder on gardasil especially since he had reversed himself credibly before his brief POTUS run and undone the policy.

That cannot be said of the religious persecution and pro-abort policies of Romneycare and Obozocare and their respective sponsors. Both are lifetime pro-aborts and lifetime serial liars as well. Neither has any credibility on such issues if claiming to suddenly have become "pro-life." Platform or no platform.

Sorry, as to Romney, you are on your own. I do not care to line up for a chance to touch the hem of his or Obozo's garment. Now or ever.