GOP PLATFORM CALLS FOR CONSTITUTIONAL PERSONHOOD AMENDMENT, DEFUNDING OF PLANNED PARENTHOOD
BY HEATHER CLARK
SEE: http://christiannews.net/2016/07/14/gop-platform-calls-for-constitutional-personhood-amendment-defunding-of-planned-parenthood/; republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
WASHINGTON — In what is being called the most pro-life platform to date, the Republican Party’s platform committee agreed on Tuesday to adopt language calling for a constitutional amendment protecting children in the womb, as well as the defunding of the abortion giant Planned Parenthood.
“The Constitution’s guarantee that no one can be deprived of life, liberty, or property deliberately echoes the Declaration of Independence’s proclamation that ‘all’ are ‘endowed by their Creator’ with the right to life,” it reads. “Accordingly, we assert the sanctity of human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental right to life which cannot be infringed.”
“We support a human life amendment to the Constitution and legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to children before birth,” the platform continues. “We oppose the use of public funds to perform or promote abortion or to fund organizations, like Planned Parenthood, that perform or advocate it and will not fund or subsidize health care which includes abortion coverage.”
Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins is among those who are sitting in the committee this year. He told reporters that he believes delegates will “come away with one of the most conservative platforms the party’s ever had.”
The text must still be approved officially at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio next week.
The abortion giant Planned Parenthood, however, decried the language and asserted that Republicans seek to keep women from obtaining health care.
“The Republican Party leadership is once again showing that they will stop at nothing—no matter how many women’s lives they put in danger, no matter how much violent rhetoric they embrace, and no matter how much the public disagrees with them—to prevent women from accessing critical reproductive health care like cancer screenings and STD tests,” Dawn Laguens, executive vice president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said in a statement.
The pro-life advocacy group Created Equal flew a banner over the city of Cleveland on Wednesday that read “Rescue Unborn Children” and featured an image of a 15-week aborted baby. Created Equal plans to do the same at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, but with a banner that reads “Defend Unborn Children.”
“We seek to expose the injustice of abortion to the light of human conscience and air of national opinion because our society has advanced the lie that the preborn are not human,” Executive Director Mark Harrington told the Philadelphia Voice. “Words alone are inadequate to describe the brutal deaths preborn babies experience every day.”
As previously reported, the Democratic Party unashamedly announced last week that it was including unprecedented language in its platform in support of Planned Parenthood and abortion in general.
“We believe unequivocally that every woman should have access to quality reproductive health care services, including safe and legal abortion—regardless of where she lives, how much money she makes, or how she is insured,” the text reads in part.
“We believe that reproductive health is core to women’s, men’s, and young people’s health and well-being. We will continue to stand up to Republican efforts to defund Planned Parenthood health centers, which provide critical health services to millions of people,” it says.
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