Trump-backed GOP platform softens anti-abortion language, calls for Israel-style Iron Dome over US
WASHINGTON – Republicans revealed their 2024 election platform Monday, notably tamping down the party’s stance against abortion while amping up its national security posture – even calling for the deployment of an Israel-style Iron Dome to protect the US homeland from attack.
The GOP ditched its longstanding position that called for changing the Constitution to say that life begins at conception, instead issuing language reflecting former President Donald Trump’s insistence that regulation of abortion should be left to the states.
“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,” the party wrote in its draft platform, before referring to the 2022 Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade.
“After 51 years, because of us, that power has been given to the States and to a vote of the People. We will oppose Late Term Abortion, while supporting mothers and policies that advance Prenatal Care, access to Birth Control, and IVF (fertility treatments).”
The new language is a far cry from the 2016 platform, which called for “a human life amendment to the Constitution and legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to children before birth.”
The shift comes as Democrats have been using abortion access as a key issue to drive voters to the polls. Reaction to the Supreme Court ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the case which led to Roe’s defeat, was cited as a factor behind the GOP’s underperformance in the 2022 midterm elections.
The RNC also scrapped previous platform language that objected to the 2015 Supreme Court ruling establishing the nationwide right to same-sex marriage.
The 2016 platform called the decision in Obergefell v. Hodges “lawless” and said it “robbed 320 million Americans of their legitimate constitutional authority to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman.”
‘Prevent World War III’
Instead, the platform highlights several national security-related ideas “to prevent World War III,” including “build(ing) a great Iron Dome missile defense shield over our entire country – all made in America.”
“The Republican plan is to return peace through strength, rebuilding our military and alliances, countering China, defeating terrorism, building an Iron Dome Missile Defense Shield, promoting American values, securing our homeland and borders, and reviving our Defense Industrial Base,” according to the platform.
The Iron Dome is an Israeli-made air-defense system that is heralded for its ability to target and shoot down incoming missiles. The system has been particularly helpful in stopping Hamas-launched aerial attacks throughout Israel’s nine-month war against the Iranian proxy terror group.
While the actual Iron Domes are produced in Israel, Raytheon in the US has created a similar system, dubbed the SkyHunter, which “can be produced in the United States to expand availability and capacity for the US and its allies,” according to the defense industry mammoth.
“Republicans will ensure our Military is the most modern, lethal and powerful force in the world,” the full platform said. “We will invest in cutting-edge research and advanced technologies, including an Iron Dome Missile Defense Shield, support our troops with higher pay, and get woke leftwing Democrats fired as soon as possible.”
With conflicts raging in two continents as US adversaries draw closer, Trump has upped his concern of a new world war recently. During his June 27 debate against President Biden, he cautioned Americans that “we’re closer to World War III than anybody can imagine.”
While the 20-point summary pledged the Republicans aim to “restore peace in Europe and the Middle East” and promises to “stand with Israel,” the full 16-page platform makes no mention of Ukraine or Russia, leaving voters in the dark about what role the party wants the US to play in ending the 2.5-year-old conflict.
That follows the Trump campaign’s continued hesitance to reveal the former president’s plans to address the Ukraine War, which he has claimed he could end in “one day.”
‘Stop the migrant invasion‘
Despite the emphasis on ending overseas conflicts, the platform states that “before we defend the borders of foreign countries, we must first secure the border of our country.“
“We will use all resources needed to stop the invasion – including moving thousands of Troops currently stationed overseas to our own southern border,” it said.
The platform also proposes ordering the Navy to “impose a full Fentanyl blockade” in regional waters, “boarding and inspecting ships to look for fentanyl and fentanyl precursors.”
However, blockades are rarely used as they are considered an act of war, and while the document pledged the Navy would take on the mission to stop fentanyl from flowing into the US by sea, such tasks would actually fall under the Coast Guard’s purview.
The GOP promised to “seal the border and stop the migrant invasion” and “carry out the largest deportation operation in American history.” It also pledges to “stop the migrant crime epidemic” by “demolish(ing) the foreign drug cartels, crush(ing) gang violence and lock(ing) up violent offenders.”
“Common sense tells us clearly, in President Trump’s words, that ‘If we don’t have a Border, we don’t have a country,'” the party wrote in its platform. “… We must secure our Southern Border by completing the Border Wall that President Trump started.”
The GOP additionally pledged to “deport pro-Hamas radicals and make our college campuses safe and patriotic again” after anti-Israel protests disturbed universities and threatened Jewish students across the nation in the wake of Hamas’ brutal Oct. 7 massacre of Israeli civilians.
“Republicans will use existing federal law to keep foreign Christian-hating Communists, Marxists, and socialists out of America,” the platform said. “Those who join our country must love our country. We will use extreme vetting to ensure that jihadists and jihadist sympathizers are not admitted.”
