It’s been a fascinating week in American politics. No doubt your inbox, social media feeds and the news have been filled with “RNCinCLE” posts, news, pictures, commentary and videos. Many of our pro-life friends from Georgia have been in Cleveland for the GOP Convention and some went a week early to serve on Committees ranging from the Rules Committee to the Platform Committee, which we take a special interest in. As Convention week comes to a close, we wanted to share some good news for unborn children and prolife advocates.

It may not have been mentioned in the long list of policy positions during Republican Nominee Donald Trump’s speech to the RNC Convention last night, but the cause of the unborn child was certainly not ignored by the Republican Party. It started with the Platform Committee . The issue of Life is traditionally expected to be a key issue on the platforms of both the Republican and Democratic national conventions. The Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio started by exhibiting a strong stance for Life with its recently adopted platform. (The full text of Prolife Plank is included at end of this article.)

In what has been touted as their “most pro-life platform”, the Republican National Convention’s delegates resoundingly adopted the proposed platform with a voice vote. The platform’s section on “The Sanctity and Dignity of Human Life” begins with the following statement:

Faithful to the “self-evident” truths enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, we assert the sanctity of human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed.

The platform goes on to endorse legislation that extends 14th amendment protections to unborn children. The platform also condemns the spending of taxpayer dollars on funding organizations that perform or promote abortions in addition to calling for a ban on using body parts from aborted fetuses for research. Furthermore, this platform also commends Republican legislators at the federal and state levels for leading the charge to provide children with health care coverage before birth.

The Chair of the Republican National Convention’s 2016 Platform Committee, United State Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyoming) has a perfect 100% Pro-Life Voting Record from the National Right To Life Committee.

We at the Georgia Life Alliance salute the Republican National Convention & the Republican Party for their renewed and robust support for the cause of Life.

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The Sanctity and Dignity of Human Life  

Faithful to the “self-evident” truths enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, we assert the sanctity of human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed. We support a human life amendment to the Constitution and endorse legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to unborn children. We oppose using public revenues to promote or perform abortion or fund organizations which perform or advocate it and will not fund or subsidize health care which includes abortion coverage. We support the appointment of judges who respect traditional family values and the sanctity of innocent human life. We oppose the non-consensual withholding or withdrawal of care or treatment, including food and water, from people with disabilities, including newborns, as well as the elderly and infirm, just as we oppose active and passive euthanasia and assisted suicide.

Republican leadership has led the effort to prohibit the barbaric practice of partial-birth abortion and permitted States to extend health care coverage to children before birth. We urge Congress to strengthen the Born Alive Infant Protection Act by enacting appropriate civil and criminal penalties on healthcare providers who fail to provide treatment and care to an infant who survives an abortion, including early induction delivery where the death of the infant is intended. We call for legislation to ban sex-selective abortions – gender discrimination in its most lethal form – and to protect from abortion unborn children who are capable of feeling pain; and we applaud U.S. House Republicans for leading the effort to protect the lives of pain-capable unborn children in the District of Columbia. We call for a ban on the use of body parts from aborted fetuses for research. We support and applaud adult stem cell research to develop lifesaving therapies, and we oppose the killing of embryos for their stem cells. We oppose federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.

We also salute the many States that have passed laws for informed consent, mandatory waiting periods prior to an abortion, and health-protective clinic regulation. We seek to protect young girls from exploitation through a parental consent requirement; and we affirm our moral obligation to assist, rather than penalize, women challenged by an unplanned pregnancy. We salute those who provide them with counseling and adoption alternatives and empower them to choose life, and we take comfort in the tremendous increase in adoptions that has followed Republican legislative initiatives.

For the full platform language CLICK HERE.

Georgia Life Alliance is the National Right to Life Affiliate in Georgia.  To support our work on behalf of the unborn in Georgia, CLICK HERE.