CatholicVote President Brian Burch is weighing in on the Republican National Convention 2024 platform document draft, which some conservatives have criticized for its language on in-vitro fertilization and birth control.
According to sources close to the process who spoke with CatholicVote, an excerpt from the RNC’s current draft of the platform reads:
We proudly stand for families and Life. We believe that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States guarantees that no person can be denied Life or Liberty without Due Process, and that the States are, therefore, free to pass Laws protecting those Rights.
After 51 years, because of us, that power has been given to the States and to a vote of the People. We will oppose Late Term Abortion, while supporting mothers and policies that advance Prenatal Care, access to Birth Control, and IVF (fertility treatments).
The new platform draft updates the previous platform that former President Donald Trump ran on in 2016 and 2020, which included more full-throated language on the sanctity of human life and did not mention birth control or IVF.
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Burch was in communication with both the RNC and the Trump campaign this week as the new platform’s text was hashed out. CV did not ultimately sign a coalition document supporting the new language, joined by groups such as the Susan B. Anthony List, Students for Life, and the American Principles Project. Instead, CV chose to issue its own statement explaining its position.
“I am sympathetic to those who have fought for decades to preserve the robust pro-life language that has been part of the platform for decades,” said Burch:
What became obvious is that these platform revisions reflect the priorities of President Trump, who has made political pragmatism a priority in order to win the election. The compromise language seems clearly designed to blunt the coming lies about Republicans wanting to ban birth control and avoid a public fight while Democrats are in disarray.
Burch described the new platform language as “unmistakably pro-life” but far from perfect. “It’s not the language we would have drafted, but it provides plenty of room to continue to move the country in a pro-life direction,” he said:
CatholicVote is not a Republican organization. We will always be Catholic first. Our goal is not merely to assert our principles, however, but to use prudence to apply them as best we can, given all the variables. Where we agree with party platform goals, we will support those provisions. Where we disagree, we will actively work to change them.
Burch noted that as the head of a Catholic organization, he could not fully endorse the new language given its explicit support for birth control and IVF, which the Catholic Church teaches are immoral.
“Church teaching opposes contraception because it violates both the unitive and procreative purpose of human sexuality, and likewise opposes the intentional creation and destruction of human embryos through in-vitro fertilization,” he explained. “These issues are distinct from those such as immigration, the environment, and even the death penalty, where Catholics in good conscience can disagree on how best to protect the common good.”
“You can’t do politics without prudence,” Burch added. “And in the United States, you can’t do politics without taking seriously the political circumstances of the moment, political parties, and the media – while working to limit the harm created by 50 years of abortion lawlessness.”
“As Catholics,” he continued,
we believe that all life is sacred and worthy of protection. Human life must be protected both in Washington, D.C. and state by state – the goal is plain: a culture and legal regime that protects all, from conception to natural death.
The GOP is the party of life, but not a perfect party. And we can’t forget that this November features a choice between the most pro-abortion president in American history and the most pro-life president in American history. Whoever wins will determine what really happens next.
LifeNews Note: Joshua Mercer writes for CatholicVote, where this column originally appeared.
