SPRINGFIELD – The 2016 Illinois Republican Platform was approved overwhelmingly by the party's rank and file at their convention held every four years. The Illinois GOP's website featuring the party's "philosophy" says:
Where the other major party sews [sic] division and dependence, we will continue to sew [sic] hope, opportunity, and an independence that empowers every individual to achieve his or her God-given potential.
Let it be known that this is the Republican Party. We proudly reclaim our history so that we may advance the ideal of all freedoms for all people—regardless of race, color or creed into the future.
So what does the Illinois Republican Party's platform say about the topic of "Protecting the Right to Life" – and will Governor Rauner's actions on HB 40 reflect the Republican Party's views?
As found here, on the IL GOP website:
VI. PROTECTING THE RIGHT TO LIFE
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.
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.
We advocate the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
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 organs, or that create and destroy human embryos for the harvesting of stem cells for research or treatment purposes.
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.
We believe that physicians should be required to notify a minor child’s parents or guardians prior to the performance of an abortion.
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.
In order to protect women’s health, we believe facilities in which abortions are performed should be required to meet the same medical operating standards as other outpatient surgery centers, including undergoing periodic health and safety inspections.
We support enactment of the Illinois Born-Alive Infant Protection Act, which guarantees appropriate medical care for babies whose birth is incidental to abortion.
The party's rank and file are strongly opposed to public policy that makes access to abortions easier.
Will Governor Rauner – elected into office by Illinois Republicans – hold to the party's views on HB 40?
None of their leaders ever do. Why would you expect “former” Democrat governor to be any different?
The problem: Educate the Republican voters on who-stands-for-what BEFORE the Primary Elections.
Too many do not study either the candidates or the issues. They just vote by habit, or by the crap they hear, see and read on what WE laughingly call “The News Media.”
The duty as we see it, as the “Deplorables” of the much maligned TEA Party movement, is do much of that voter education.
We are the Conservative Republican guerrillas,
who DO NOT surrender.
No. Bruce Rauner is a Pro-Abortion, Pro-Illegal Immigration, Billionaire RINO who just made us a Sanctuary State. He’s the biggest mistake that Illinois Republicans ever made.
And now he’s searching desperately for a way to sign Universal State-Funded Abortion into eternal law, meanwhile distracting us dumb conservatives with his NFL diatribe (did I mention that Bruce is part-owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers?).
Bruce and Diane are SO high above us all…..
We can’t know whether Gov. Rauner respects the party platform, but I know that he doesn’t agree with that section of it. When I heard him give a speech in Jan. 2014, he said, “If I win, I won’t do anything to decrease the number of abortions.”
Phil: He also said that abortion was best decided by the Feds, meaning the Supreme Court. Today, Bruce Rauner signed a bill saying that, if Roe v. Wade is overturned by the Supreme Court, Illinois law will defy the decision and keep our state grinding out abortions. No social agenda, right Bruce?