CHICAGO - Reported earlier Thursday, the Pew Research Polling reports that Catholic voters are breaking towards Barack Obama. A Catholic Voters Guide encourages Catholics to check the platforms of the different political parties to see how they line up with The Church's teachings.
From Page 5 of the Illinois Republican Party 2012 Platform, the issue of the Right to Life is addressed. The platform was recommended by the IL GOP's 2012 Platform Committee and approved by an overwhelming majority of the delegates in a voice vote at the IL GOP Convention in Tinley Park last June.
VI. EMBRACING THE FIRST FREEDOM: THE RIGHT TO LIFE
A. [Because we believe] that the rights and needs of children begin at conception, the Republican Party of Illinois embraces the Right to Life of innocent unborn children and supports reform proposals protecting that right and limiting the practice of abortion in Illinois.
B. We believe that all innocent human life must be respected and safeguarded from conception to natural death:
therefore,
C. The unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life, which cannot be infringed.
The Party affirms its support for a human life amendment to the U.S. Constitution and we endorse making clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protection applies to unborn children.
D. We urge the reversal of Roe v. Wade.
E. We affirm our support for the appointment or election of judges at all levels of the judiciary who respect traditional family values and the sanctity of human life.
F. The Illinois Republican Party opposes the fostering of utilitarian experiments which sacrifice human embryos in what appears to be a futile search for medical cures. Such experimentation undermines the right to life of every human being and offends the moral conscience of many taxpayers. We embrace the more fruitful – and completely ethical – avenues of research using cord blood, bone marrow and other adult stem cells, and we note the success of adult stem cell research in treating or curing more than 70 diseases, conditions and injuries.
G. In particular, we call on the Governor and General Assembly to:
��� End the taxpayer subsidy for abortion;
��� Require a doctor to involve a minor’s parents before aborting her unborn child;
��� Outlaw the barbaric practice of partial‐birth abortion; and
��� Enact the Illinois Born‐Alive infant Protection Act guaranteeing medical assessment and appropriate medical care for babies whose birth is incidental to abortion
