The Six Strangest Items in the GOP Party Platform
The GOP’s party platform, on which the delegates will vote tonight, is not yet out in full. Of course, drafts of it have already leaked to various outlets.
Much of it is unsurprising. The draft platforms promise, among other things, that a Republican administration would defend DOMA in federal court, support a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, and require a supermajority for new taxes (except in cases of war and national emergencies). The draft also adopts Paul Ryan’s controversial plans to convert Medicare to a voucher system.
But some of it offers glimpses of the specific methods Republicans hope to use to remake the federal government. Below, some of the most interesting changes a Republican administration and Congress would hope to usher in.
Apply the Fourteenth Amendment to unborn children
The GOP party platform supports a Constitutional amendment banning abortion:
“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 endorse legislation to make clear that the [Fourteenth Amendment’s] protections apply to unborn children.”
The platform does not specify at what point in a pregnancy the unborn child would be protected by the Fourteenth Amendment—but in the minds of conservatives who support the expansion of the Constitution in this way, the Supreme Court can pick any moment, leading all the way back to conception…