In 1971, the tide of public opinion ran against abortion. Every single pro-abortion bill was shot down in state legislatures in ’71 and ’72. However, the issue changed in 1973 with the Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton decisions, which made first trimester abortion restrictions illegal in all 50 states. Far from settling the abortion issue for all time, “it was the beginning of a long legal and political battle,” Phyllis Schlafly said.
At this point, the Republican Party had yet to take a firm stance one way or another on abortion. The Republican Platform question was still wide open. Phyllis Schlafly wanted to remedy this, because the Platform enables the party to express the grassroots will of the constituency. When an issue is defined in the party platform, it frames the discussion within the party and allows voters to see what a candidate should stand for.
Phyllis set out in 1976 to bring this legal and political battle into Republican Party politics. She describes the 1976 Kansas City Republican National Convention as the first instance of the pro-family movement raising its voice in national politics. Thanks to Phyllis’s service on the Platform Committee, it was also the first instance of the Republican Platform acknowledging abortion.
During the 1980 Reagan Revolution, Phyllis led the platform to affirm its support for unborn children. She and the platform committee also removed the pro-Equal Rights Amendment plank. The ERA would have led to constitutionally protected taxpayer funding for abortions.
1984 was the year that the pro-life plank was locked into the platform. The platform stated that “The unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed. We therefore reaffirm our support for a human life amendment to the Constitution, and we endorse legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to unborn children.” This was the strongest pro-life wording yet in the Republican Platform, and Phyllis set out to defend this plank in every GOP convention to come.
Read how the GOP became the pro-life party and retained the pro-life standard: Phyllis Schlafly Speaks: Vol. 3 How The Republican Party Became Pro Life
Listen to Phyllis Schlafly Read “How the Republican Party Became Pro-Life“
