Southern Baptist leaders respond to potential pro-life RNC public policy change • Biblical Recorder

MILWAUKEE (BP) — The release of the Republican National Convention (RNC) platform reveals a potential shift in the party’s stance on a federal abortion ban. The statement came hours after the RNC’s platform committee met Monday morning.

“We proudly stand with families and life. We believe that the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees that no one shall be denied life or liberty without due process, and therefore states have the freedom to pass laws to protect those rights,” the document, published on The Hill, reads.

This wording clearly places responsibility on state legislatures, two years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade.

“After 51 years, we have handed that power back to the states and the people,” the platform states. “We will oppose late-term abortion while supporting mothers and policies that promote prenatal care, access to contraception, and in vitro fertilization (infertility treatments),” the document reads.

However, one professor at the Evangelical Seminary disagrees with the commission’s logic.

“Since 1984, the Republican Party platform has always included strong language defending the sanctity of human life for the unborn. It is important that at least one major political party recognizes what is clear from both Scripture and the evidence of science: human life is sacred from the moment of conception and should be protected by law,” said Daniel Darling, director of the Land Center for Cultural Engagement at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (SWBTS) and adjunct professor of faith and culture at Texas Baptist College.

The final vote on the program will take place in the program committee on July 9, and it will then be presented to delegates at the party convention on July 15-18.

“Unlike the party’s 2016 platform, the text does not include a 20-week federal limit on abortions or call on states to adopt the Human Life Amendment, which proposes changing the Constitution to declare that life begins at conception,” Politico reports. “Instead, the text says states are ‘free to enact laws protecting’ the rights granted in the 14th Amendment.”

In an article published by Religion News Service, Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) President Brent Leatherwood said, “A political party’s platform should define the purpose of that body. When the Republican National Committee meets, rather than rejecting or diminishing the platform’s staunchly pro-life stance, its members should unabashedly promote liberty and stand up for life, call abortion evil, advocate for laws that recognize it for the sin it is, and embrace proposals that will free men and women from the destruction it leaves in its wake.”

On July 3, Leatherwood called on leaders of both political parties to “prioritize pro-life policies in their soon-to-be-released party platforms.”

“Now more than ever is the time to advocate for a robust vision of life. Policymakers should craft proposals that reflect the founding ideals of this nation and provide freedom to those who truly have no voice. This true culture of life would usher in an era in which unborn lives are saved, vulnerable mothers are protected from the predatory abortion industry, and young families are supported at both the federal and state levels,” he wrote in an editorial.

Earlier this summer, Southern Baptists voted for a resolution “to reaffirm the unconditional worth and right to life of every human being, including those in the embryonic phase, and to use only reproductive technologies that are consistent with that affirmation, especially with respect to the number of embryos generated through in vitro fertilization.”

“Since Roe fell, many Republicans have been unprepared for this moment, unable to articulate a coherent pro-life ethic,” Darling told Baptist Press. “There is significant pressure to abandon the pro-life cause because of perceived electoral challenges. Evangelicals recognize the challenge we face: It will take a lot of persuasion to take the culture with us. We must be careful to choose the right battles to save as many unborn children as possible.”

He claims that candidates who espoused pro-life policies were rewarded by voters.

“Over a half-century of pro-life activism, candidates who have stood up for the unborn have won both locally and nationally, including for president. This can be done with both conviction and compassion,” he said.

Darling believes it is “a mistake to try to soften the language that the Republican Party has used for 40 years.”

“Candidates should ignore this language and stick to their pro-life beliefs,” he said.

(EDITOR’S NOTE —Brandon Porter serves as associate vice president for convention news on the SBC Executive Committee.)