Has the GOP lost its mind on abortion? In part, yes, and in part pro-lifers are to blame. I’ll explain in this edition of the Case for Life podcast. Welcome, friends. Good to have you with us today. Well, the Republican convention is in full swing right now in Milwaukee. There’s a lot of energy. Of course, the The very troubling event over the weekend with a former president nearly being assassinated has a lot of buzz going on about what this means for the future of our republic. But I want to dial back a bit and go back about a week or so to something that happened on the platform committee that some of you may not be aware of. The GOP softened its language on abortion, but it did more than just a little marketing twist. This was not a tweak. This was a fundamental exclusion of a principle that the party has held to really since Roe v. Wade. And here’s the problem that happened. Instead of arguing from the platform language that the unborn have a fundamental right to life that the government ought to respect and protect, the new language says the party will oppose late-term abortion and will give states the right, presumably on the basis of the 14th Amendment, which they botched totally in their analysis of it, that would allow them to protect the unborn by allowing each state to pass laws on abortion. The new emphasis is not on the unborn’s fundamental right to an abortion, but on states’ rights to pass legislation. And I want to explain why That is a terrible shift in policy from the platform committee. Does this mean that the Republican Party is now a pro-abortion party? No. Does it mean that the Republicans will not do a better job limiting the evil of abortion? Probably not. In all fairness Platform language tends to be ignored by candidates anyway. But what’s troubling to me is when you as a party abandoned principle, you set yourself up for a lot of criticism and a train wreck of possible messaging and policies that could emerge from this and I fear the GOP, at least in this election cycle, has done something that could damage its efforts to stand for life. One of the things that I think a lot of people get wrong is the history of what happened prior to Roe v. Wade. Prior to Roe v. Wade being overturned, what happened was this. The Republican Party and large numbers of pro-lifers made their primary political criticism of Roe v. Wade along these lines. The Supreme Court and Roe v. Wade co-opted the abortion issue and gave sole authority for legislating on abortion to the federal courts That’s all true. The federal courts absolutely overreached in Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton. and later with Planned Parenthood versus Casey. No argument there. But when you make that your primary political argument, rather than saying Roe v. Wade was unjust law because it failed to protect the natural right to life of the unborn and indeed undermined it. allowed open season on human fetuses, that’s the moral argument we should have made. Here’s why abortion is wrong. It’s not wrong in principle because the Supreme Court overreached and the federal courts took sole jurisdiction of the issue. That’s a problem, but that’s a political problem. The main problem with abortion is moral. Here it is. The right to an abortion, the so-called right to an abortion, undermines our natural rights as human beings. And this is a distinction I think a lot of pro-lifers fail to make. Natural rights are those rights you have in virtue of being human. The government does not grant these rights. They are pre-political, meaning They exist prior to the formation of government. You have them by nature as a human being. For example I do not have a right to vote in the next UK election or in the last one that recently happened. Why? Because I’m not a citizen of the United Kingdom. That makes perfect sense. The political right to vote is restricted to the citizens of that nation. But I do have a natural right not to be gunned down in Trafalgar Square every time I visit London. And that natural right does not spring from the British government or the American government. It is a right I have in virtue of being a human being. It’s what we call fundamental rights. Now up until last week, the Republicans in their platform language, reflected that natural right tendency or that natural right a language rather. It said that the unborn have a fundamental right to life. And government ought to respect that. In fact, the language even included reference to national legislation that would protect the rights of the unborn. Okay, that’s a principled stand. But when you strip away the principle that the unborn have a fundamental right to life, and replace it with vague language about opposing late-term abortion and a very messy reference to the 14th Amendment saying that states based on the 14th Amendment, can pass laws protecting people, protecting the unborn in particular, you’ve made a mess of things. You’ve not only abandoned your principle, you misconstrued the 14th Amendment. The 14th Amendment is not giving the states rights to pass laws protecting the unborn. The 14th Amendment was giving Congress power to prevent states from passing laws that would deprive slaves of due process, of equal protection. In other words, the 14th Amendment is empowering Congress to protect the lives of recently freed slaves. And what the platform committee did is kind of put together this scrambled egg mess of vague references to the 14th Amendment but they’re not even getting right what that amendment was about in its original context. But the real problem here is when you abandon a principle of the right to life being a natural right, and you don’t make that your argument, you’re going to get into trouble. And this is the thing that bugs me about pro-life politicians. Let’s talk about abortion honestly. Let’s state what our real opposition is. All a politician has to say when a hostile press puts a mic in their face and says, hey, why are you opposed to abortion? I wish they would give this seven-second soundbite. I oppose abortion because it’s wrong to intentionally kill innocent human beings. Stop. Say no more. The reason that’s so powerful is it keeps the main thing the main thing. I just looked at a website. of a major pro-life group. And I’m not going to name them because I’m not interested in harming them or otherwise calling bad attention to them. But their messaging is deplorable. Here’s what it says right on the homepage. The landing, when you go to their site, it says life, the other choice. That is the language of our opponents. That’s not our language. We don’t think abortion or choosing life is just one option among many. We think it’s a moral wrong to intentionally kill innocent human beings. Why are we adopting the language of our opponents? And why are the Republicans backing off their principle? Now, again, I want to make it clear. Do I think that should the Republicans win this next election, let’s say they sweep the House and Senate, let’s say they also get the executive branch, do I think that they will put a stop to federal funding of abortion overseas? Yes. Do I think that they will stop the advance of any pro-abortion bill? Well, in part, But again, this new language says that the party supports wholesale, in principle, IVF infertility treatments. But wait a minute. We all know that when you use in vitro fertilization, there is a huge problem with embryos being wasted embryos being killed in the process many times. This makes IVF something we ought to at least say is contingently wrong. because unborn humans are losing their lives. The right to have a child should never entail a right to intentionally kill another human being, which often happens in IVF procedures. So the Republicans have gotten very muddled in their moral reasoning here, and it’s not going to help them. Now, if you’re a pro-life candidate and you want to say more on abortion than what I just gave you in that 7 second soundbite, namely that you oppose abortion because it’s wrong to intentionally kill an innocent human being. I really think less is more. I think it’s better to say less than more. And the reason is this. You will never destroy your candidacy by not saying something. You will likely destroy it if you say the wrong thing. So in the hostile environment we’re in, if you must say more, maybe you could say something like this. I oppose abortion because it’s wrong to intentionally kill innocent human beings. But I want to make it clear that I’m vigorously pro-choice on women choosing their own husbands, choosing their own careers, choosing their own worldviews, choosing the cars they wish to drive, the pets they wish to own, all of that. I’m pro-choice on all of those things. But some choices are wrong, like intentionally killing an innocent human being. That’s a choice a civil society should not promote and ought to oppose. And then again, say no more. If you say more, you just get into what about this? What about rape? What about the poor woman? And that’s where politicians mess up. So instead of softening our platform language and watering down or really in this case removing our principle, What we ought to do is do a better job of articulating what that principle is. And that principle is simply this. It is wrong to intentionally kill innocent human beings. Why? Because they have a fundamental or natural right to life. that pre-exists the state. It’s anterior to the state. The state doesn’t invent that right. Governments and parties don’t invent that right. That right was already there in virtue of the unborn being members of the human family. Let’s protect that natural right. Let’s not water it down and confuse people about this. This is the problem. And by the way, this was forecasted to be a problem as far back as When Alan Keyes, in what is arguably the most powerful pro-life speech you will ever hear—in fact, we’re going to link to it in the show notes here— gave a speech to a group of Republicans that were advocating that the pro-life plank be pulled from the GOP platform. And he stood up at a banquet where he was in the minority and gave the most powerful 8 minute speech you will ever hear. here and here was the essence of his argument if the republican party abandons its principle that the unborn have a natural right to life, that party one day will be abandoned by people of principle. And that very well will happen. Right now, Donald Trump is riding high because after all, He not only did a great debate performance and showed Joe Biden to be a feeble cognitive train wreck, but He survived an assassination attempt, and he’s got a real opportunity to win in November. And actually, I’m going to tell you, I hope he does win because we have a responsibility as Christians to limit evil and promote the good insofar as possible. So yes, I will be voting for an imperfect party, but I’ll tell you what, Republicans, listen up. Pro-lifers are not going to tolerate you tossing us under the bus long term. You might get away with it in this election cycle, But we’re going to come back and we’re going to fight for that platform committee in the next round, the next time we have a candidate that isn’t Donald Trump. And we’re going to fight on principle. Why? Because if you don’t fight on principle You’re not going to have the tools you need to convince a culture that abortion is a serious moral wrong. Think about the states that have had referendum on abortion. I’ve seen messaging in these states that is laughable, quite frankly. They don’t even talk about the moral wrong of abortion. They talk about, oh, parental consent or, oh, this bill will not be able to stop you from causing your son or daughter from transitioning their gender. Okay, those are important topics. I get it. But quite frankly, it’s easy for the other side to come up with a heartstring story. of a woman saying in tears that if she had not had access to abortion, it would have ruined her life, and that story will easily be destroy your narrative that parental consent is at stake. Now, let’s talk about what abortion really is. The intentional dismemberment of a living human being in the womb. Let’s keep the main thing the main thing. And maybe if we stick to our principles, we have a shot at helping this nation reform itself and politically bring it in line with where our morals ought to be. Thanks for joining us today. Be sure to visit us on our social media sites. And special thanks again. to Life Training Institute for being the primary sponsor of this show. I look forward to seeing you next time. And in the meantime, give this show a like, pass it on to friends. Maybe they need to understand more about what our messaging ought to be politically. Thanks for joining us.