The president of the Southern Baptist Convention was among the faith and pro-lifers on Tuesday who expressed dismay at a new Republican platform that waters down the party's position on abortion and, for the first time since 1972, fails to include language explicitly referencing the "unborn." The 2024 platform, passed by the Republican National Committee's platform committee on Tuesday, is the first GOP platform since 1972 not to back a federal pro-life solution to the abortion issue. Every platform since 1976 has been pro-life, including the 2016 one, which said, "We assert the sanctity of human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental right to life which cannot be infringed."

The new platform calls abortion a state issue.

The 2024 platform's language on abortion says: "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."

Clint Pressley, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention, spoke out against the new platform.

"I am disheartened by what's happened in the GOP," Pressley wrote on X, formerly Twitter. "The GOP platform may be subject to change, but God's word is not. Southern Baptists 'contend for the sanctity of all human life from conception to natural death' and will insist that elected officials do the same."

The 2024 platform also backs "access to Birth Control and IVF" -- language that was not in past platforms and that is opposed by some social conservatives. The Southern Baptist Convention, for example, passed a resolution this year expressing concern with IVF and calling on governments to restrict it.

Lila Rose, founder and president of Live Action, criticized the new platform.

"The new GOP platform on life is a significant downgrade from what it has been for four decades," Rose said. "This is deeply disappointing and harmful to preborn American children. Our constitution guarantees every person the right to equal protection; states do not get to decide which innocent people can be unjustly destroyed."

The new GOP platform on life is a significant downgrade from what it has been for four decades.

Rose added, "President Trump won in 2016 running on protections for life that have been in the GOP platform for 40 years and his promise to appoint strong constitutional judges. Trump's recent statements on life and the downgraded GOP platform protections on life he's approved are alienating some of his most passionate supporters and will win exactly zero fence-sitters."

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, criticized the platform committee for not allowing amendments. He is a member of the committee.

"I am concerned the Republican Party is moving away from its strong, definitive goal of protecting children from the moment of conception," Perkins said.

The 2024 @gop Party Platform is a great campaign platform, but it lacks substance — the enduring, historic principles of a Party.

Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, said the "platform is disappointing" and "makes it seem as if abortion is merely a state's issue."

"President Trump's wrong on this," she said.

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