Gone is the plank that says marriage is only between one man and one woman, as are the 2016 platform's 32 mentions of abortion, except for the call to ban late-term procedures.
The new platform does declare the party is pro-life, but as pro-lifers have told AFN, it waters down any stance for the issue in terms of congressional action, fetal tissue research, and specifically talking about God as the creator who has endowed us with the right to life.
Carol Tobias, president of the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), acknowledges that the life language is definitely shorter than it has been in the past, but she is not highly critical of the document.
"Part of that reflects President Trump's position that this should be a states' rights issue when it comes to abortion on the federal level," she notes. "But even if President Trump would say, 'We're going to get abortion out of the federal government,' look at everything that could be done."
For example, U.S. tax dollars are currently paying for abortions in other countries by giving money to organizations that promote or perform them, and the Biden administration is trying to force hospital emergency rooms to perform abortions.
Also, the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs are funding abortion or paying for soldiers' transportation to end the lives of their babies in the womb.
"We could get out of that," says Tobias. "Even if a Trump-Vance administration would say, 'We're just going to get the federal government out of abortion,' we would be lightyears ahead of where we are now."
She encourages people to look at the overall picture when considering the parties, the candidates, and their positions on abortion.
"The platform is a minor detail when you look at everything that can and most likely will be done," the pro-lifer submits.
Dr. Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Dallas, agrees.
"The fact that a platform doesn't address something is meaningless," he tells AFN. "Most platforms are never seen after they are voted on every four years."
He recognizes that Donald Trump is a pragmatic, transactional man who is willing to embrace incremental change if moves the ball down the field.
"President Trump has made the political calculation that to be pro-life and have an influence, he has to first get elected," the pastor notes. "Wrapping around his neck a platform that is never going to be enacted is something that seems futile."
Dr. Jeffress also points out that President Trump's first term got pro-lifers what he calls the holy grail, the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
"Everybody needs to remember that Donald Trump is the most pro-life president in history, and what matters are not words, but actions," Jeffress reiterates.
The platform does seem to broaden the tent for the GOP, as did the convention, prompting some evangelical leaders to worry evangelicals will become to the Republican Party what the black vote is to Democrats: assumed and guaranteed.
To that concern, the Baptist pastor says it is "dangerous" for any candidate or party to assume they have evangelical support, but he maintains that President Trump should be given credit for delivering for evangelicals.
