By National Women’s Law Center Action Fund
In honor of this week’s Republican National Convention, we wanted to set the record straight on one of the biggest coverups of this election cycle. And no – we’re not talking about hush money payments.
Last week, the Republican National Committee (RNC) released a party platform that intentionally tries to hide their extreme, anti-abortion agenda. This platform is not the same as the radical Project 2025 plan written by former Trump staffers, which directly calls for a national abortion ban among other horrifying policies.
The party platform is the official policy positions of the Republican Party and, for the first time in 40 years, it does not include a call for an explicit national abortion ban. This omission has news organizations declaring that the Republican Party has “softened” its stance on abortion.
Here’s why that’s wrong according to our lawyers.
Going back decades, Republicans have sought to employ a legal strategy known as “fetal personhood.” Essentially, it would give fertilized embryos/fetuses the same legal rights and protections that all Americans have, separate and distinct from the pregnant person.
Doing this would create many extreme and unprecedented outcomes, including what happened in Alabama when IVF was essentially banned. As well as in Ohio, when a person who experienced a miscarriage was criminally charged.
One of the main goals of the fetal personhood effort is to outlaw abortion nationwide. Because if a fetus is a person, anti-abortion extremists could sue over any law, state or federal, that protects abortion access, claiming that it violates a fetus’s right to life under the Constitution.
It is a way to ban abortion nationwide, full stop.
President Trump has downplayed abortion restrictions in some of his official remarks — knowing it’s unpopular with voters. But anti-abortion extremists are still a powerful interest group within the GOP. So, what did the Republican Party land on for their platform to appeal to both camps? Language that seems like gobbledygook, but is actually signaling a national abortion ban.
In their platform, the RNC writes: 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.
In the same sentence, Republicans suggest that fetuses have rights under the Constitution, and then immediately pivot to a conclusion that “the States are, therefore, free to pass Laws protecting those Rights.” Don’t be fooled by this language – this position would not allow states to protect abortion if they wanted to.
If the Republican Party has its way, and fetuses/embryos become protected by the 14th Amendment, no state would be able to protect abortion access because, as our lawyers will tell anyone who will listen, constitutional protections supersede state law. If fetal personhood is the law of the land, a fetus’s federal constitutional right to life would be paramount. States could not protect the right to abortion or guarantee abortion access.
And just like that – we have a national abortion ban.
The RNC knows exactly what it is doing in a crucial and close election year. The party’s long-term anti-abortion strategy paid off when former President Trump packed the Supreme Court with extreme justices who unjustly overturned Roe v. Wade. And now, Republicans are working hard to make fetal personhood – which is a way to ban abortion nationwide – a reality.
Throughout this week’s Convention, the Republicans will attempt to mislead voters on their true positions on abortion and other issues that they know are unpopular with voters. We cannot allow this deception to succeed. Share this blog or the resources listed below to counter their misinformation and stand up for the truth.
- Mother Jones: The GOP’s “Softened” Abortion Platform Is a Ruse | By Julianne McShane
- X Thread from Mary Ziegler, law professor at the University of California.