The Republican National Coalition for Life (RNC/Life) was founded by Phyllis Schlafly in the fall of 1990 after two groups, Republicans for Choice and National Republican Coalition for Choice, publicly announced their intention to provoke a floor fight at the 1992 Republican National Convention in Houston in order to remove the pro-life plank from the platform.
Throughout 1991 and 1992, the two pro-abortion-choice groups carried on a relentless attack against the official position of the Republican Party which states in part that, “the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed.” Their campaign enjoyed massive coverage and support from the media and ample funding from the abortion industry and their friends in the Republican Party.
After securing 100,000 Pledges of Support for the platform plank from grassroots voters across America, and an impressive endorsement list of 3,500 Republican public and Party elected officials, RNC/Life led the successful effort by pro-life national Delegates to readopt the pro-life plank.
In 1996, at the Republican National Convention in San Diego, RNC/Life was faced with the same challenge, this time augmented by the vast financial resources and political power of pro-abortion, liberal Republican Governors Whitman (NJ), Weld (MA), Pataki (NY), Rowland (CT) and Wilson (CA). Once again, we organized and elected pro-life delegates to county, district and state conventions which resulted in a majority of pro-life Delegates who attended the National Convention and unanimously adopted the pro-life plank.
The Republican Party has been the pro-life Party since Roe vs. Wade when, at the 1976 National Convention a resolution in support of efforts to secure a human life amendment to the Constitution was adopted.
RNC/Life will continue to work to protect and defend the Republican Party’s principled commitment to legal protection for all innocent human beings, from conception until natural death.
In addition, we will work to hold Republican lawmakers accountable to the pro-life principles in our platform. It is our desire to see those principles translated into public policy and law. Further, we encourage Republican Party officials to enthusiastically support pro-life candidates and policies consistent with our platform.
While RNC/Life is not an official branch of Phyllis Schlafly Eagles or the Eagle Forum Education & Legal Defense Fund, we are proud to partner with them in helping to defend the Republican Party’s principled commitment to legal protection for all innocent human beings, from conception until natural death.
