Republican Party (United States)

==== Abortion and embryonic stem cell research ====
The Republican position on [[Abortion in the United States|abortion]] has changed significantly over time.<ref name="Williams-2022" /><ref name="Williams-2015">{{Cite journal |last=Williams |first=Daniel K. |date=June 2015 |title=The Partisan Trajectory of the American Pro-Life Movement: How a Liberal Catholic Campaign Became a Conservative Evangelical Cause |journal=Religions |language=en |volume=6 |issue=2 |pages=451–475 |doi=10.3390/rel6020451 |issn=2077-1444|doi-access=free }}</ref> During the 1960s and early 1970s, opposition to abortion was concentrated among members of the political left and the Democratic Party; most liberal Catholics — which tended to vote for the Democratic Party — opposed expanding abortion access while most conservative evangelical Protestants supported it.<ref name="Williams-2015" />

During this period, Republicans generally favored legalized abortion more than Democrats,<ref name="Halpern-2018">{{Cite news |last=Halpern |first=Sue |date=November 8, 2018 |title=How Republicans Became Anti-Choice |language=en |work=[[The New York Review of Books]] |url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2018/11/08/how-republicans-became-anti-choice/ |access-date=February 4, 2023 |issn=0028-7504 |archive-date=February 4, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230204085532/https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2018/11/08/how-republicans-became-anti-choice/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Williams |first=Daniel K. |date=2011 |title=The GOP's Abortion Strategy: Why Pro-Choice Republicans Became Pro-Life in the 1970s |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-policy-history/article/abs/gops-abortion-strategy-why-prochoice-republicans-became-prolife-in-the-1970s/C7EC0E0C0F5FF1F4488AA47C787DEC01 |journal=Journal of Policy History |language=en |volume=23 |issue=4 |pages=513–539 |doi=10.1017/S0898030611000285 |s2cid=154353515 |issn=1528-4190 |access-date=July 4, 2023 |archive-date=July 4, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230704221201/https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-policy-history/article/abs/gops-abortion-strategy-why-prochoice-republicans-became-prolife-in-the-1970s/C7EC0E0C0F5FF1F4488AA47C787DEC01 |url-status=live }}</ref> although significant heterogeneity could be found within both parties.<ref name="Taylor-2018">{{Cite web |last=Taylor |first=Justin |date=May 9, 2018 |title=How the Christian Right Became Prolife on Abortion and Transformed the Culture Wars |url=https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/evangelical-history/christian-right-discovered-abortion-rights-transformed-culture-wars/ |access-date=February 4, 2023 |website=[[The Gospel Coalition]] |language=en-US |archive-date=February 4, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230204085533/https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/evangelical-history/christian-right-discovered-abortion-rights-transformed-culture-wars/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Leading Republican political figures. including [[Richard Nixon]], [[Gerald Ford]], [[Ronald Reagan]], and [[George H. W. Bush]], took pro-choice positions until the early 1980s.<ref name="Halpern-2018" /> However, starting at this point, both George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan described themselves as pro-life during their presidencies.

In the 21st century, both [[George W. Bush]]<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bruni |first=Frank |date=January 23, 2000 |title=Bush Says He Supports the Party's Strong Anti-Abortion Stand |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/politics/camp/012300wh-gop-bush-platform.html |access-date=February 4, 2023 |website=[[The New York Times]] |archive-date=February 4, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230204085527/https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/politics/camp/012300wh-gop-bush-platform.html |url-status=live }}</ref> and [[Donald Trump]] described themselves as "[[Anti-abortion movements|pro-life]]" during their terms. However, Trump stated that he supported the legality and ethics of abortion before his candidacy in 2015.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Smith |first=David |date=May 5, 2022 |title=Trump the hero for anti-abortion movement after bending supreme court his way |language=en-GB |work=[[The Guardian]] |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/may/05/trump-abortion-supreme-court |access-date=February 4, 2023 |issn=0261-3077 |archive-date=February 4, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230204085526/https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/may/05/trump-abortion-supreme-court |url-status=live }}</ref>

Summarizing the rapid shift in the Republican and Democratic positions on abortion, Sue Halpern writes:<ref name="Williams-2022" /><blockquote>...in the late 1960s and early 1970s, many Republicans were behind efforts to liberalize and even decriminalize abortion; theirs was the party of reproductive choice, while Democrats, with their large Catholic constituency, were the opposition. Republican governor Ronald Reagan signed the California Therapeutic Abortion Act, one of the most liberal abortion laws in the country, in 1967, legalizing abortion for women whose mental or physical health would be impaired by pregnancy, or whose pregnancies were the result of rape or incest. The same year, the Republican strongholds of North Carolina and Colorado made it easier for women to obtain abortions. New York, under Governor [[Nelson Rockefeller]], a Republican, eliminated all restrictions on women seeking to terminate pregnancies up to twenty-four weeks gestation.... Richard Nixon, Barry Goldwater, Gerald Ford, and George H.W. Bush were all pro-choice, and they were not party outliers. In 1972, a Gallup poll found that 68 percent of Republicans believed abortion to be a private matter between a woman and her doctor. The government, they said, should not be involved...  </blockquote>Since the 1980s, opposition to abortion has become strongest in the party among [[Traditionalist Catholicism|traditionalist Catholics]] and conservative Protestant evangelicals.<ref name="Williams-2022" /><ref name="Taylor-2018" /><ref name="Abdelfatah-2022">{{Cite web |last=Abdelfatah |first=Rund |date=June 22, 2022 |title=Evangelicals didn't always play such a big role in the fight to limit abortion access |url=https://www.npr.org/2022/06/22/1106863232/evangelicals-didnt-always-play-such-a-big-role-in-the-fight-to-limit-abortion-ac |access-date=February 24, 2023 |website=[[National Public Radio]] |archive-date=February 24, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230224184105/https://www.npr.org/2022/06/22/1106863232/evangelicals-didnt-always-play-such-a-big-role-in-the-fight-to-limit-abortion-ac |url-status=live }}</ref> With the possible exception of the [[ordeal of the bitter water]] in Numbers 5:11–31,<ref name="Bergant1992">{{cite book |last=Bergant |first=Dianne |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nj-AkOJ9wRQC&pg=PA156 |title=The Collegeville Bible Commentary: Based on the New American Bible: Old Testament |publisher=Liturgical Press |year=1992 |isbn=0814622100 |page=156}}</ref> [[Bible|the Bible]] does not mention the topic of abortion or explicitly take a position on the practice, although several verses [[Christianity and abortion|have been interpreted]] as supporting or opposing the ethics of abortion.<ref>{{Cite web |last=O'Donnell |first=Paul |date=October 16, 2020 |title=What does the Bible really say about abortion? |url=https://religionnews.com/2020/10/16/what-does-the-bible-really-say-about-abortion/ |access-date=February 24, 2023 |website=Religion News Service |language=en-US |archive-date=February 24, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230224183007/https://religionnews.com/2020/10/16/what-does-the-bible-really-say-about-abortion/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Initially, evangelicals were relatively indifferent to the cause of abortion and overwhelmingly viewed it as a concern that was [[Sectarianism|sectarian]] and [[Catholic Church|Catholic]].<ref name="Abdelfatah-2022" /> Historian [[Randall Balmer]] notes that [[Billy Graham]]'s ''[[Christianity Today]]'' published in 1968 a statement by theologian [[Bruce Waltke]] that:<ref>{{Cite web |last=Waltke |first=Bruce K. |author-link=Bruce Waltke |date=November 8, 1968 |title=The Old Testament and Birth Control |url=https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/1968/november-8/old-testament-and-birth-control.html |access-date=February 24, 2023 |website=[[Christianity Today]] |language=en |archive-date=February 24, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230224190800/https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/1968/november-8/old-testament-and-birth-control.html |url-status=live }}</ref> "God does not regard the fetus as a soul, no matter how far gestation has progressed. The Law plainly exacts: "If a man kills any human life he will be put to death" (Lev. 24:17). But according to Exodus 21:22-24, the destruction of the fetus is not a capital offense. ... Clearly, then, in contrast to the mother, the fetus is not reckoned as a soul." Typical of the time, ''Christianity Today'' "refused to characterize abortion as sinful" and cited "individual health, family welfare, and social responsibility" as "justifications for ending a pregnancy."<ref name="Balmer-2022">{{Cite web |last=Balmer |first=Randall |author-link=Randall Balmer |date=May 10, 2022 |title=The Religious Right and the Abortion Myth |url=https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/05/10/abortion-history-right-white-evangelical-1970s-00031480 |access-date=February 24, 2023 |website=[[Politico]] |language=en |archive-date=February 24, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230224190749/https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/05/10/abortion-history-right-white-evangelical-1970s-00031480 |url-status=live }}</ref> Similar beliefs were held among conservative figures in the [[Southern Baptist Convention]], including [[W. A. Criswell]], who is partially credited with starting the "[[Southern Baptist Convention conservative resurgence|conservative resurgence]]" within the organization, who stated: "I have always felt that it was only after a child was born and had a life separate from its mother that it became an individual person and it has always, therefore, seemed to me that what is best for the mother and for the future should be allowed." Balmer argues that evangelical American Christianity being inherently tied to opposition to abortion is a relatively new occurrence.<ref name="Balmer-2022" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Allen |first=Bob |date=November 6, 2012 |title=Evangelicals and abortion: chicken or egg? |url=https://baptistnews.com/article/evangelicals-and-abortion-chicken-or-egg/ |access-date=February 24, 2023 |website=Baptist News Global |language=en-US |archive-date=February 24, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230224191638/https://baptistnews.com/article/evangelicals-and-abortion-chicken-or-egg/ |url-status=live }}</ref> After the late 1970s, he writes, opinion against abortion among evangelicals rapidly shifted in favor of its prohibition.<ref name="Abdelfatah-2022" />

Today, opinion polls show that Republican voters are heavily divided on the legality of abortion,<ref name="Doherty-2023">{{Cite web |last=Doherty |first=Carroll |title=How Republicans view their party and key issues facing the country as the 118th Congress begins |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2023/01/19/how-republicans-view-their-party-and-key-issues-facing-the-country-as-the-118th-congress-begins/ |access-date=January 21, 2023 |website=Pew Research Center |language=en-US |quote=There are fissures in the GOP coalition. The same typology study found fissures in the GOP coalition, including over economic fairness, tax policy, and in views of abortion and same-sex marriage. |archive-date=January 21, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230121121637/https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2023/01/19/how-republicans-view-their-party-and-key-issues-facing-the-country-as-the-118th-congress-begins/ |url-status=live }}</ref> although vast majority of the party's national and state candidates are [[anti-abortion]] and oppose elective [[abortion]] on religious or moral grounds. While many advocate exceptions in the case of [[incest]], rape or the mother's life being at risk, in 2012 the party approved a platform advocating banning abortions without exception.<ref name="platform">{{cite web|first1=Alan|last1=Fram|first2=Philip|last2=Elliot|url=https://finance.yahoo.com/news/gop-oks-platform-barring-abortions-gay-marriage-204947742.html|title=GOP OKs platform barring abortions, gay marriage|website=Finance.yahoo.com|date=August 29, 2012|access-date=December 27, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170226133220/https://finance.yahoo.com/news/gop-oks-platform-barring-abortions-gay-marriage-204947742.html|archive-date=February 26, 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> There were not highly polarized differences between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party prior to the ''[[Roe v. Wade]]'' 1973 Supreme Court ruling (which made prohibitions on abortion rights unconstitutional), but after the Supreme Court ruling, opposition to abortion became an increasingly key national platform for the Republican Party.<ref name="The Great Divide: Religious and Cultural Conflict in American Party Politics2">{{Cite book|url=https://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-great-divide/9780231120593|title=The Great Divide: Religious and Cultural Conflict in American Party Politics|last=Layman|first=Geoffrey|author1-link=Geoffrey Layman|date=2001|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0231120586|pages=115, 119–120|access-date=July 15, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150625083214/http://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-great-divide/9780231120593|archive-date=June 25, 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="How race and religion have polarized American voters">{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2014/01/20/how-race-and-religion-have-polarized-american-voters/|title=How race and religion have polarized American voters|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|access-date=July 15, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180716002726/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2014/01/20/how-race-and-religion-have-polarized-american-voters/|archive-date=July 16, 2018|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=Party hacks and true believers: The effect of party affiliation on political preferences|date=2019|journal=Journal of Comparative Economics|volume=47|issue=3|pages=504–524|doi=10.1016/j.jce.2019.03.004|last1=Gould|first1=Eric D.|last2=Klor|first2=Esteban F.|s2cid=241140587}}</ref> As a result, Evangelicals gravitated towards the Republican Party.<ref name="The Great Divide: Religious and Cultural Conflict in American Party Politics2" /><ref name="How race and religion have polarized American voters" /> Most Republicans oppose government funding for abortion providers, notably [[Planned Parenthood]].<ref name="ontheissues">{{cite web|title=Bobby Jindal on the Issues|publisher=Ontheissues.org|url=http://www.ontheissues.org/House/Bobby_Jindal.htm|access-date=May 16, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120613001947/http://ontheissues.org/House/Bobby_Jindal.htm|archive-date=June 13, 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref> This includes support for the [[Hyde Amendment]].

Until its dissolution in 2018, [[Republican Majority for Choice]], an abortion rights PAC, advocated for amending the GOP platform to include pro-abortion rights members.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/06/pro-choice-republicans-in-congress-are-nearly-extinct.html|title=The Near-Extinction of Pro-Choice Republicans in Congress|last=Kilgore|first=Ed|work=[[New York (magazine)|New York Intelligencer]]|access-date=October 10, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180920132858/http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/06/pro-choice-republicans-in-congress-are-nearly-extinct.html|archive-date=September 20, 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>

The Republican Party has pursued policies at the national and state-level to restrict [[embryonic stem cell]] research beyond the original lines because it involves the destruction of human [[embryo]]s.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Levine|first1=A. D.|last2=Lacy|first2=T. A.|last3=Hearn|first3=J. C.|date=February 18, 2013|title=The origins of human embryonic stem cell research policies in the US states|url=https://doi.org/10.1093/scipol/sct005|journal=Science and Public Policy|volume=40|issue=4|pages=544–558|doi=10.1093/scipol/sct005|issn=0302-3427|access-date=November 7, 2021|archive-date=November 8, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211108165659/https://academic.oup.com/spp/article-abstract/40/4/544/1635831?redirectedFrom=fulltext|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Blendon|first1=Robert J.|last2=Kim|first2=Minah Kang|last3=Benson|first3=John M.|date=November 17, 2011|title=The Public, Political Parties, and Stem-Cell Research|url=https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMp1110340|journal=New England Journal of Medicine|volume=365|issue=20|pages=1853–1856|doi=10.1056/NEJMp1110340|issn=0028-4793|pmid=22087677|access-date=November 7, 2021|archive-date=November 8, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211108165700/https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1110340|url-status=live}}</ref>

After [[Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization|the overturning]] of ''Roe v. Wade'' in 2022, a majority of Republican-controlled states [[Abortion law in the United States by state|passed near-total bans]] on [[abortion]], rendering it largely illegal throughout much of the United States.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Leonhardt |first=David |date=April 6, 2023 |title=The Power and Limits of Abortion Politics |language=en-US |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/06/world/wisconsin-chicago-elections-abortion.html |access-date=April 7, 2023 |issn=0362-4331 |quote=After the Supreme Court overturned Roe last June and allowed states to ban abortion, more than a dozen quickly imposed tight restrictions. Today, abortion is largely illegal in most of red America, even though polls suggest many voters in these states support at least some access. |archive-date=April 6, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230406104207/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/06/world/wisconsin-chicago-elections-abortion.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Siders |first=David |date=April 6, 2023 |title=No Wisconsin wake-up call: Republicans go full steam ahead on abortion restrictions |url=https://www.politico.com/news/2023/04/06/wisconsin-gop-abortion-restrictions-00090888 |access-date=April 7, 2023 |website=[[Politico]] |language=en |archive-date=April 6, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230406203158/https://www.politico.com/news/2023/04/06/wisconsin-gop-abortion-restrictions-00090888 |url-status=live }}</ref>