When is it okay to intentionally kill an innocent human being?

Answer: Never.

But that's not what the new Republican platform approved at their convention this week says.

When President Ronald Reagan was running for reelection in 1984, the Republican Party adopted a platform that explicitly called for legal protection of all human life from the moment of conception until natural death. (Related article: Kaylen Silverberg: Republicans should protect and prioritize IVF)

“The unborn have a fundamental individual right to life that must not be infringed,” the platform states. “We therefore reaffirm our support for the Constitution's Human Life Amendment and support legislation that would clarify that the protections of the 14th Amendment apply to the unborn.”

Up until 2016, Republican National Conventions adopted platforms that reiterated this very point. (In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic significantly scaled back the size and scope of the convention, so the party did not draft a new platform.)

Donald Trump's Republican platform in 2016 stated It states: “The Constitution guarantees that no one 'shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property,' which purposefully mirrors the Declaration of Independence's declaration that 'all men' are endowed 'by their Creator' with certain inalienable rights to life.' Thus, we assert the sanctity of human life and recognize that the unborn have a fundamental right to life that cannot be infringed. We support the Constitution's Human Life Amendment and legislation clarifying that the protections of the 14th Amendment apply to unborn children.”

The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution expressly declares that no state “shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws” and grants Congress “power to enforce the provisions of this article by appropriate legislation.”

Therefore, Congress, under its Fourteenth Amendment power, can enact laws to prevent states from denying the right to life of an unborn child.

Over the years, pro-life senators and representatives have repeatedly proposed bills that would do just that.

For example, in 2004, Republican Senator Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma proposed the Life at Conception Act, which, according to an official summary of the bill, would declare that “the constitutional right to life is endowed to each human being from the moment of conception, cloning, or any other moment at which an individual comes into existence.”

Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter of California introduced the bill in the House in 2011. Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio introduced it in the House in 2013. Republican Rep. Alex Mooney of West Virginia introduced it in the House in 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021 and 2023.

Republican Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi introduced the bill in the Senate in 2011. Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky introduced the bill in the Senate in 2013, 2016, 2017, 2019 and 2021.

So what does the Republican platform approved at this year's Republican National Convention say about the right to life?

It included a platform titled, “The Republican Party will protect and defend the people's vote from state to state on issues of life.”

The platform states: “We are proud to support family and life. We believe that the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees that no one shall be denied life or liberty without due process, and therefore states are free to enact laws to protect these rights. After 51 years, we have placed that power in the hands of each state and the people in a vote. We oppose late-term abortion and support mothers and policies that promote prenatal care, access to birth control, and in vitro fertilization (fertility treatment).”

It says nothing about the power that Congress has to enact laws protecting the right to life of the unborn child from the moment of conception (a power it clearly has under the Fourteenth Amendment).

“Accordingly, the States are free to enact laws to protect these rights.” Are states simply “free” to do so? No. Because the unborn human being has the same God-given right to life and equal protection of the law as a born human being, states cannot continue to permit abortion. States must protect the right to life of all human beings, and so must the U.S. Congress.

“We oppose late-term abortion,” the Republican platform says. But does that mean they don't oppose the killing of unborn children that are not “late-term abortions”?

Republicans have said they support “policies that increase access to contraception and in vitro fertilization.”

What about birth control methods that act as abortifacients? The platform doesn't say Republicans oppose them.

And by supporting policies that “pro-” IVF, Republicans are supporting the procedure of conceiving babies in a laboratory and freezing or discarding any that don't implant in a mother's uterus.

The Republican Party has taken principled positions on the right to life in platforms adopted at its conventions from 1984 to 2016.

Right now, the government is backing away from the most important issue of our time.

Terence P. Jeffery is investigative editor for the Daily Caller News Foundation. To learn more about Terence P. Jeffery or to read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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