New Republican platform banning ALL abortions could also restrict IVF... which three of Romney's sons have used to conceive

New Republican platform banning ALL abortions could also restrict IVF... which three of Romney's sons have used to conceive

The new Republican platform is to propose a ‘human life amendment’ to the Constitution that would ban abortion without exceptions for rape or incest - a move that Democrats will use to tie Mitt Romney to Paul Ryan’s hard-line record on the ‘Life’ issue.

Republican party strategists are concerned that the comments about ‘legitimate rape’ made by Todd Akin, the Missouri candidate for the US Senate, and the anti-abortion views he shares with Representative Ryan will re-ignite a ‘culture war’ than could distract Romney from his central message about jobs and the economy.

Although best known for his fiscal conservatism, Representative Ryan, a staunch Roman Catholic, has a 100 per cent anti-abortion approval rating from the anti-abortion National Right to Life Committee group.


Last year, Ryan and Akin were among 64 members of the House of Representatives who co-sponsored a Sanctity of Human Life act that enshrines the principle that human life begins at fertilisation and could even severely restrict  practices like IVF.

An estimated 60,000 babies are born in the US each year as a result of IVF treatment and up to 15 per cent of couples are believed to struggle with infertility issues. Three of Romney's five sons are understood to have used IVF.


Romney has 18 grandchildren and in May his eldest son Tagg became the father of twin boys who were IVF babies carried by a surrogate mother.
This is the second time the couple, who are Mormons like Mitt and Ann Romney, used a surrogate. Their son Jonathan was born in 2010 using a surrogate mother.


Democrats have already labelled the ‘human life amendment’ as ‘the Akin amendent and sought to tie Ryan with his House colleague Akin.
Lis Smith, an Obama campaign spokeswoman, said in a statement that Republicans had ‘passed the Akin amendment as part of their party platform, banning abortion for all women even in the case of rape’, adding: ‘Women across this country should take note of the Republican Party’s position, and not trust any of the false promises made by Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan on the campaign trail.’

The Obama campaign has already issued a statement saying that last year Ryan ‘worked with Mr Akin to try to pass laws that would ban abortion in all cases’. Democrats enjoy a traditional advantage among women voters and any perceived attempt to erode reproductive rights could cost Romney enough of a proportion of female votes to deny him the White House.

During the IVF process, embryos are often frozen outside the womb for later use and some are destroyed. The legal implication of the embryo being legally a person could be immense and groups such as the American Society for Reproductive Medicine have strenuously opposed such ‘personhood’ measures.



Although the bill sponsored by Akin and Ryan does not mention IVF and would not make it illegal, the legislation would undoubtedly have major knock-on effects on infertility treatment and this has given liberals the opportunity to claim that Ryan is an extremist who wants to ban IVF and drastically curtail women’s rights.

UltraViolet, a Left-wing women’s rights group, has claimed that Ryan ‘Ryan would "outlaw in vitro fertilization – seriously’, adding: ‘That same bill that outlaws some forms of birth control could also make in vitro fertilization illegal. Can't have kids naturally? Too bad.’

Ryan has emphasised that he defers to Romney on all policy matters and the two of them were strenuous in their condemnation of Akin’s remarks and have stated that they back abortion in the case of rape or incest.



According to draft language obtained by CNN, the Republican party platform will state: ‘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.

‘We support a human life amendment to the Constitution and endorse legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment's protections apply to unborn children.’

Similar language has been included in the party platform since 2000 but became controversial in 2008 when Senator John McCain, then the Republican nominee, advocated adding an explicit reference to rape and incest exceptions, provoking the ire of some social conservatives.

The platform, which has to be approved by all delegates, reaffirms the party’s opposition to federally-funded embryonic stem cell research and demands that the federal government will ‘not fund or subsidise health care which includes abortion coverage’.