Obama, Democrats Bashing Romney Over New Pro-Life GOP Platform

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Aug 21, 2012   |   3:53PM   |   Washington, DC

It didn’t take long for President Barack Obama and top Democrats to bash presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney on the issue of abortion following the Republican Party’s adoption of a new platform that opposes abortion.

As LifeNews reported, GOP leaders in the platform committee approved a strongly pro-life platform that uses similar language from past platforms calling for a Human Life Amendment to protect unborn children under law.

The platform reads, “Faithful to the ‘self-evident’ truths enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, we assert the sanctity of human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed.”

Responding to that, pro-abortion Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz aggressively attacked Romney in a conference call with reporters. She brought up the recent controversial comments from Todd Akin and said the platform doesn’t call for any exceptions for rape or incest and “was written at the direction of the Romney campaign.”

“This is just another example of a Republican Party led by Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan whose policies on women’s health are dangerously wrong,” Wasserman Schultz said, according to CNN news.

Meanwhile, the Obama re-election campaign told CNN that it would bring up the platform and point out a clear “contrast point” with Romney and Ryan on the issue of abortion in coming days. The Obama campaign has already been running commercials in battleground states attacking Romney and Ryan for their pro-life views.

“That is something that is important to a number of women and the people in their lives,” the Obama campaign official said.

Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL, joined Wasserman Schultz on the call and said, “It’s time for Mitt Romney to stand up for women, he should unequivocally denounce the Human Life Amendment in the Republican platform.”

The pro-abortion NOW group also called on Romney to repudiate the platform.

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“Today, the Republican Party demonstrated again why Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are wrong for women in the U.S. The party’s committee platform approved an anti-abortion plank that champions a human life amendment to the U.S. Constitution without mentioning any exception for rape, incest or preservation of the health or life of the woman,” it complained. “Romney and Ryan should also condemn the platform’s encouragement of state laws mandating medically unnecessary ultrasounds and waiting periods.”

But Carol Tobias, president of the National Right to Life Committee, applauded Republicans for keeping the GOP pro-life.

“The Republican Party is the party of life,” Tobias told LifeNews. “The language adopted today makes a strong stand supporting the most vulnerable members of our society. We applaud the Republican Party and the dedicated members of the platform committee for reaffirming and renewing their efforts on behalf of mothers and their unborn children.”