New Republican platform makes one thing clear: We’ve dropped the anti-abortion effort

Republicans have made it clear they will follow Trump anywhere, even if it’s to ignore the anti-abortion movement.

The Republican Party adopted on Monday a new party platform leading up to the 2024 national convention.

The platform reads as you would expect a Trumped-up party platform would, with all-caps promises to “SEAL THE BORDER,” “PREVENT WORLD WAR THREE,” and to “UNITE OUR COUNTRY BY BRINGING IT TO NEW AND RECORD LEVELS OF SUCCESS.”

I wouldn’t be surprised if former President Donald Trump wrote these talking points himself, because the GOP has seemingly fully given in to Trumpism as the leading party platform.

That’s bad news for any movement that takes itself seriously, particularly those with an actual mission that impacts the lives of Americans. Sadly, the GOP following Trump’s lead on abortion is a major departure from the direction anti-abortion activists have steered the party in over the past several decades.

As a young voter who is pro-life, I came into conservatism at the peak of the anti-abortion movement’s success, with the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022 while I was in college. I’m saddened that it appears the party will not continue down that path into my adulthood.

Republican platform abandons those of us who are pro-life

The single mention of abortion in the official GOP platform reads, “We will oppose Late Term Abortion.”

Compare that with the Republican platform from 2016, the last year the GOP produced an official platform, and the difference is stark. The term “abortion” is mentioned 35 times throughout the text, discussing varying degrees of federal bans that Republicans would support.

Before Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, Republicans had it easy. They could promise far-reaching abortion bans once Roe was overturned and not deal with the political consequences. It was a good topic to score harmless points on.

However, since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, support for abortion rights has ticked up and the issue has become the biggest electoral struggle the GOP has faced. In the 2022 midterm elections, 24% of voters ‒ with the share of Democrats nearly tripling that of Republicans ‒ listed abortion as the single biggest factor in their vote, and 38% said it heavily influenced their decision to vote in the election.

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The flurry of ballot measures that enshrined abortion rights at the state level following the decision also didn’t bode well for the GOP. In these states, Democratic women are significantly more likely to vote in elections where abortion is on the ballot, and Republican women are conversely slightly less likely to vote.

I wish I could say I was surprised, but the modern GOP shifts its positions wherever the voters want them to. With its softening on the issue of abortion, the Republican Party proves there is no issue where it will hold the line.

Abortion is political kryptonite for the GOP. It shouldn’t matter.

Although I understand the electoral difficulty of selling the message of protecting life, I am saddened that the GOP has been so quick to abandon the most important civil rights issue of my generation.

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Attaching the party to Trump’s whims is a recipe for disaster, especially when his position changes with the wind. If the GOP of old didn’t die under Trump’s first presidency, the transformations the party is undergoing under his leadership this time will certainly lead to the death of the Republican Party we knew.

The anti-abortion movement for decades was a pillar of the Republican Party’s base, and the GOP could reliably bank on their votes regardless of the candidate purely because of their ability to nominate conservative justices with the jurisprudence required to overturn Roe.

Rather than taking on the admittedly daunting task of changing hearts and minds on the issue, the GOP has thrown the anti-abortion movement by the wayside the moment it became politically inconvenient to stand with us.

The promise of Roe v. Wade one day being overturned produced a stalwart voting bloc of religious voters loyal to the Republican Party. This population viewed the overturning of Roe as an important victory in a long road to equal protection of life rather than the end point the GOP has seemingly deemed it.

Former Vice President Mike Pence, an unwavering leader of the pro-life movement, in a statement encouraged “delegates attending next week’s Republican Convention to restore language to our party’s platform recognizing the sanctity of human life and affirming that the unborn child has a fundamental right to life which cannot be infringed.”

I agree with Pence’s calls, but I’m skeptical that any such change will come. The Republican Party’s kismet lies wherever Trump guides it, and Trump’s stance on abortion goes wherever it gets him the most votes.

Dace Potas is an opinion columnist for USA TODAY and a graduate of DePaul University with a degree in political science.