SPRINGFIELD – After hearing from GOP constituents on proposed changes, the 2016 Illinois Republican Party Platform and Resolutions Committee agreed on Wednesday night's conference call to continue working on platform language that would be acceptable to more members.
This year's hot button issue – removing the term "one-man, one-woman" from the platform's section on families – opened the floodgates of discussion between the IL GOP's differing sides on social issues. The division is between those Republicans that want a party platform that upholds traditional values and those that prefer the platform not focus on social values.
The Illinois Republican Party's state convention is held during presidential election years, and this year's will be this weekend at the Peoria Convention Center.
After leaks about the proposals being discussed emerged Wednesday on Illinois Review, committee members began hearing from the Republican rank and file – a sore spot with several of the committee members upset about their contact information being made public.
The Platform and Resolution committee members – who are each appointed by their state central committeeman – will present the proposed platform that a majority of the members support Friday morning at 10 am. Saturday, the state's delegates will be asked to give a thumbs up or down to the finalized platform on the convention floor.
Two key wording changes on social issues have emerged, one concerning "one-man, one-woman" marriage and another on the topic of abortion.
On the family, the current platform (posted HERE) says:
The proposed change on this section:
VII. STRENGTHENING ILLINOIS FAMILIES
A. We recognize that a strong family, based on the institution of marriage, sanctified by God and strengthened by the legal protections afforded to that institution by government, is the basic building block of society. Accordingly, we support public policies that promote the formation, endurance, and autonomy of the nuclear family and that empower parents to provide a safe and nurturing home environment for their children.
B. We recognize that religious freedom is the “first” freedom, as enshrined in the First Amendment. While we oppose discrimination in any form, we also oppose public policies that seek to compel or coerce individuals, businesses, religious institutions, or other organizations to violate their core religious beliefs, including, without limitation, by participating in ceremonies that run contrary to their core religious beliefs.
C. We believe that parents—not bureaucrats—are best-positioned to make decisions regarding the health and welfare of their minor children, and we support public policies that preserve and strengthen parental rights.
D. We believe that the disintegration of the nuclear family is a leading cause of generational poverty and that a connection exists in this and other respects between “social” and “fiscal” public policy issues.
E. We recognize that the states reserved to themselves—implicitly throughout the U.S. Constitution and explicitly in the Tenth Amendment—the power to legislate on matters related to marriage and family, and we oppose efforts by the federal government to encroach on that reserved power.
We've also learned of proposed changes to the platform's pro-life language. The current platform (as posted HERE) says:
Proposed language for the new platform says:
VII. PROTECTING THE RIGHT TO LIFE
A. We believe that our natural rights, as enshrined in the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, begin at conception and continue until natural death. We believe that these rights include the fundamental right to life of unborn children, and we support the appointment or election of judges who share that belief.
B. We support a human life amendment to the federal and Illinois constitutions affirming the right to life of unborn children, and we support making clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to unborn children.
C. We oppose the use of taxpayer funds to pay for abortions or to support organizations that perform abortions, that participate in the purchase or sale of fetal tissue, or that create and destroy human embryos for the harvesting of stem cells for research or treatment purposes.
D. We believe that the practices of partial birth and late-term abortion are so morally repugnant that we specifically, and strongly, affirm our opposition to those practices.
E. We applaud the work of pregnancy care centers in reducing abortions. We support public policies that encourage adoption—by reducing costs and streamlining processes—as an alternative to abortion.
F. To that extent that providers are permitted to perform abortions, we believe that it is important to protect women’s health and safety by requiring state licensure and annual health and sanitary inspections for abortion clinics.
G. We observe that an overwhelming majority of Americans oppose abortion in all circumstances or believe that abortion should be permitted under only certain circumstances. We intend that this Part serve as a statement of unifying principles for the overwhelming majority of Americans who believe that abortion should be limited.
The platform committee reportedly is continuing negotiations on these sections to reach acceptable language before Friday's 10 am gathering in Peoria.
