RNC chair Priebus: Our platform is clear that “life begins at conception”

On Sunday, Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus dismissed speculation that Donald Trump’s recent comments about changing the GOP platform’s abortion plank would lead to any actual changes.

Last week, the businessman and GOP presidential candidate said he would “absolutely” favor amending the platform’s declaration “that the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed” to make exceptions for rape, incest, and life-of-the-mother cases.

But on ABC’s “This Week,” Priebus noted that convention delegates, not the candidates, have the final say over any alterations to the party platform. “If that’s what Donald Trump is intending, then he needs to make sure that the people that agree with him are the people that are getting elected to the platform committee,” he said.

“I think our platform is pretty clear on those subjects. Life begins at conception, and that 14th Amendment rights apply to unborn children,” Priebus continued. “And I would suspect that that is what the platform is going to say after Cleveland.”

Trump’s own official campaign position is pro-life with those exceptions, but the GOP platform does not prevent incremental legislation containing those exceptions. Of his remaining primary competitors, Ohio Governor John Kasich also supports those exceptions, but Texas Senator Ted Cruz supports only an exception to save a mother’s life.