In case you were wondering how the state Republican platform varies from the no-exception no-abortion stance of the national party, it doesn’t. Here’s the language of the 2012-14 state GOP platform:
3. The Republican Party of Arkansas believes that unborn children have a fundamental individual right to life, which cannot be infringed. We believe that all innocent human lives should be respected and safeguarded from conception to natural death. We oppose assisted suicide, euthanasia, genocide, infanticide, cloning, partial birth and all abortion, and embryonic/fetal stem cell research. The Party affirms its support for a Human Life Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. We endorse legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to unborn children. We oppose using public revenues for abortion and organizations which advocate it. We support the appointment of judges who respect traditional family values and the sanctity of human life. We urge the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
4. We support state legislation that will ensure abortion coverage is prohibited from being offered in state-sponsored health care exchanges, federal exchanges, federal-state partnerships and high risk pools created under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
About that fetal stem cell business: If fertilized eggs are created in a laboratory setting for women who can’t conceive any other way and then are not used, they may be destroyed. If unused cells aren’t discarded but are used to create new cell lines, they live — and help others live. Why isn’t that pro-life?