Republicans in Tampa, Fla. voted Tuesday on a draft of anti-abortion language that calls for a constitutional ban, but does not indicate whether exceptions could be made for victims of rape or incest. The language proposed and approved by the GOP's platform committee—a group that articulates the party's stance on issues ranging from abortion to foreign policy—closely mirrored abortion language adopted by the party in 2008 and 2004. "The unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed," the platform draft states, according to CNN. "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." Republican officials said that granular details could be left to the states, and Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell, chair of the committee, said that the platform would not outline cases in which abortion should be permitted, according to the Washington Post. "We just affirm our belief that human life should be protected and supported and we call for a human life amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which has been part of the platform for, I think, 20 years," he told the Post.
