GOP platform bans abortions, gay marriage

GlobalPost

Republicans approved a party platform on Tuesday at the GOP's national convention in Tampa, which would ban all abortions and gay marriages and cut taxes to stimulate the economy and create jobs, the Associated Press reported.

The platform document opens with a pledge that the GOP will "begin anew, with profound changes in the way government operates; the way it budgets, taxes and regulates." Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, who headed the platform committee said, "It offers a solution for workers without jobs, families without savings and neighborhoods without hope," according to the AP.

The document backs a constitutional amendment which would define marriage as between one man and one woman, opposes any form of gun control legislation, and states that "the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed."

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Reuters noted that the platform was shaped heavily by conservatives in the party, with some positions on social issues going farther right than what many Republicans support. The anti-abortion language comes in the aftermath of the controversy stirred by US Rep. Todd Akin, of Missouri, when he said that women's bodies protect them from pregnancy after "legitimate rape."

A recent survey by the Pew Research Center showed that more Americans (52 percent) were interested in the party's platform than were interested in Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's speech (44 percent) or that of his running mate, Paul Ryan (46 percent), according to CNN.

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The Washington Post noted that the GOP, as viewed through its platform documents, "has morphed over the past half-century from a socially moderate, environmentally progressive and fiscally cautious perspective to a conservative party that is suspicious of government, allied against abortion and driven by faith."

Not all Republicans back the platform, as The International Business Times noted, with former governor of Florida Jeb Bush saying, "Our demographics are changing, and we have to change not necessarily our core beliefs, but how we -- the tone of our message and the message and the intensity of it, for sure."

Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown wrote a letter to the RNC last week rejecting the draft language in the platform document, saying, "There are people of goodwill on both sides of the abortion issue, and we need to send a message to voters that there is room in the Republican Party for differing perspectives."

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