WARNING: A National Abortion Ban, Hiding in Plain Sight

The GOP Platform's Sneak Attack on Abortion, IVF and Freedom

Earlier this week, I wrote that the far right knows just how toxic their agenda is—and they know full well it will cost them elections in a fair democracy.

This understanding of their own unpopularity shapes their entire political battle—and fuels their endless attack on democracy.

Trump laughably disowning Project 2025, when he is Project 2025, is a classic example of this.

And so is the recently released GOP Platform position on “the Issue of Life.”

You see, they’ve been paying attention. They know that, post-Dobbs, their attack on abortion access and reproductive freedom are motivating women and young voters to show up, and crush them in election after election. It’s been the most consistent pattern in politics since Dobbs came down.

So, like Trump, knowing that abortion and the broad range of issues around reproductive freedom pose a risk to their grip on power, they are trying to bury their actual position in the GOP platform.

The Platform Language

Here’s what’s in the 2024 GOP Platform on abortion. Give it a close read:

GOP Platform

It’s a weird section, isn’t it?

Sort of all over the place. Disjointed.

It starts out by saying “We proudly stand for families and Life,” then in rapid sequence: references the 14th Amendment, opposes “late term abortion,” and even supports pre-natal care, IVF and birth control. And sounding like Trump in the debate, there are references to supporting “vote[s]” of the people in states—which sounds fine (y’know, democracy—although only 19 state have direct democracy for Constitutional amendments), until you recall how hard they tried to stymie that vote Ohio. In all, it’s a jumble of words which has led some in the press to say their stance has shifted. “Softened.”

But don’t be fooled.

Their position remains to support a national abortion ban. And to go even further than a legislated national ban that often is discussed.

And their anti-abortion supporters actually know it.

How?

My friend and tireless researcher Jenny Cohn explained this so well on Twitter this week, and in her constant research of the far right (you can access all her work HERE), I’m going to share her explanations—and I hope you then share it with others.

Things That Make You Go Hmmmm…The GOP Sudden Affection for the XIV Amendment

So amid the odd phrasing, where is the actual GOP position on abortion in the Platform?

Let me give you a hint: smack dab in the middle of the section, when the party embraces…the XIV Amendment.

As in, right here:

There it is!

What's a XIV Amendment reference doing in the middle of a statement about “Life”?

In a Republican platform, of all places?!

After all, this is a party that attacks the core tenets of the XIV Amendment all the time—through laws, though court rulings, and through rhetoric. They undermine equal protection. They attack voting rights. They even attack birthright citizenship. So many of the core values and protections they have spent a generation undermining emanate from the XIV Amendment.

They’ve also gutted Congress’ power to enforce the provisions of the XIV Amendment. Which is why the Voting Rights Act has hardly any force left.

So given generations of hostility….isn’t it odd that they suddenly are citing the 14th Amendment in their own GOP platform?

And that’s the hint: the XIV Amendment reference in the “Life” section has nothing to do with any traditional notions of what the XIV Amendment was about.

No, the platform’s reference to the XIV Amendment is actually where their position on abortion is located.

It is the ban on abortion—and it’s far more extreme than a legislated ban.

And as Jenny Cohn shows, the far right knows this is exactly what the reference is doing there.

“Fetal Personhood”: The Far Right XIV Amendment Theory

So when they cite the XIV Amendment in a section about abortion, what do they mean?

It’s shorthand for a theory called “fetal personhood.”

Stated simply, the far right theory is that the XIV Amendment protects embryos and fetuses as “persons.” In the video below, this Princeton professor explains it as plain as day, arguing that fetuses “in the womb,” including “from the earliest embryonic stage,” are “persons” that “are protected under the Fourteenth Amendment.” This is what the 14th Amendment authors intended, he argues:

And if that’s true, both embryos (IVF) and unborn fetuses enjoy equal protection and due process rights under the XIV Amendment. And if that’s true, they believe, that means the United States Constitution commands a national abortion ban.

And who would impose such a ban? The Supreme Court, through a ruling.

And what would the implications be of a Court-imposed, 14th Amendment-grounded ban on abortion or IVF? It would mean that no action by either federal or state lawmakers could undo it. Just as it would mean that voters in states would no longer be able to protect reproductive freedom by passing state-level Constitutional amendments. Amendments in place now, like that in Ohio, would be nullified.

Now that is extreme.

But maybe, you’re thinking, this is just one ivory-tower professor talking this way.

Think again.

As Jenny Cohn did several months ago, let me introduce you to another guy—his name is Tim Busch. He co-founded and chairs the board of a group called the Napa Legal Institute.

He says the same thing as the guy above:

You can access the video itself—the money lines comes at 8:22, where he says the 14th Amendment “gives that declaration of independence right to the unborn…[W]e’re going to see a case in the next five to ten years that could undermine these constitutional state amendments….”

So why do we care what Busch says?

Because one spot down on the Napa Legal Institute board of directors is none other than…

….Leonard Leo, the guy who runs the Federalist Society, which has shaped the current Supreme Court and the conservative judges in the federal judiciary more than any other institution.

By the way, Jenny has traced other connections between Leo and this radical theory:

And here:

So as opposed to some rogue theory, this 14th Amendment “fetal personhood” theory is dangerously close to the center of power of the conservative legal world.

How central? Leo and the Federalist Society are the people who basically give Trump the list of judicial nominees from which he chooses his appointments. And because it’s the courts and the Court who wield the power to impose this right-wing 14th Amendment theory on the nation, these are the last people we want embracing this rogue theory. But there they are.

“A Dog Whistle”

So yes, amid the disjointed and less militant platform language on abortion—presented that way to serve broader political goals—the direct reference to the 14th Amendment operates like a bat signal calling for a national abortion ban.

And as Jenny Cohn found, amid the confusing platform language, many leaders of the far right cause are openly translating this “dog whistle” for all their followers.

Here’s Ralph Reed:

Here’s the Susan B. Anthony list statement:

These are people at the core of the anti-abortion extreme. The leaders. And they know exactly what the role of the XIV Amendment is playing in the platform.

They also know that instead of pushing for an (unpopular) legislative ban on abortion nationwide, the GOP platform is essentially embracing the far more radical, back-door approach that no state or federal law protecting reproductive freedom, as early as IVF treatments, can survive scrutiny under a judicial embrace of their rogue 14th Amendment theory. It’s yet another example of how the far right tries to impose highly toxic views on the nation that would never otherwise succeed in a fair democracy.

So, as The NY Times wrote, the platform statement is actually a major win for the anti-abortion extreme. It’s a coup.

So now, if anyone asks you where the national abortion ban appears in the GOP platform, you can say, it’s right here 👇

Hiding in plain sight.

Plain sight to all who know the right-wing theory of the 14th Amendment.

But hiding amid misleading language to confuse the media and the public…and so they can avoid admitting what they intend.

As with Trump and Project 2025, they know if voters understood what they actually intended with abortion and IVF, they’d lose elections all over America.

So you know what we’ve gotta do?

Make sure the voters DO know.

Do not let this happen, America.

Spread this far and wide.