The memo said the new platform would reflect President Trump’s political positions.
Donald Trump’s top advisers plan to overhaul the Republican Party’s platform, shortening it and bringing it “in line” with the former president’s “vision for America’s future,” according to a memo sent to the Republican Platform Committee obtained by ABC News.
The memo came after some of the more socially conservative members of the Republican National Committee and some anti-abortion groups expressed concern that the upcoming election platform might adopt Trump’s positions on reproductive rights, which would result in the withdrawal of a call for a 20-week federal abortion ban that is part of the current platform language.
President Trump opposes a federal ban and has made it clear that the issue should be left to states.
The memo did not specifically mention abortion or reproductive rights, but emphasized the idea that the new platform would reflect President Trump’s political positions.
“For decades, the Republican Party has released textbook-length policy platforms that have been vetted and purposefully misrepresented by our political opponents. The mainstream media has used its influence to spread lies and misrepresentations that often lead voters to believe we say things that we don’t,” said the memo sent by Trump campaign managers Chris LaCivita and Suzie Wiles.
The Republican National Committee’s 2016 platform, approved again in 2020 with Trump as party chairman both times, is more than 60 pages long.
“Recognizing that publishing an unnecessarily lengthy paper would only add fuel to the fires of misinformation and misrepresentation to our opponents’ voters, we will present a streamlined policy platform that is consistent with President Trump’s principled, populist vision for America’s future,” the memo said.
The memo was sent to Platform Committee members on Thursday.
The committee began meeting in Milwaukee on the evening of July 7 and is scheduled to meet on July 8 and 9 ahead of the Republican National Convention.
A draft of the new platform has not yet been distributed to most of the platform committee members or rank-and-file members of the Republican National Committee, but numerous discussions and lobbying efforts on the issue with Trump allies are ongoing among leaders of key advocacy groups and some individuals, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.
“Any talk of Republican pro-life policy change is deeply concerning to pro-life Americans across the country. There has only ever been one pro-life party, and if Republicans withdraw from this fight, there will be no one to continue this fight,” said Tim Chapman, president-elect of former Vice President Mike Pence’s nonprofit political advocacy group.
“We expect the Republican platform will continue to explicitly call for national protections for the unborn, rooted in the 14th Amendment. To weaken the Republican platform’s pro-life stance would be to abandon the party’s commitment to protecting the human dignity of all people,” Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life USA, said in a statement to ABC News.
–ABC News’ Brittany Shepherd contributed to this report.
