Faith & Family
Families are the bedrock of Missouri. This question should measure every public policy: Does it strengthen or weaken our families? Policies strengthening our families should be pursued. Those weakening the family structure must be discarded.
The Fundamental Right to Life
God-given rights for all citizens, including the fundamental right to life for born and unborn children, the aged, the terminally ill, and the handicapped, should be provided for in our laws and in our Constitution. Life begins at conception, and therefore we reaffirm our support for a Human Life amendment to the United States Constitution. We endorse legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to unborn children and encourage those institutions, including faith-based initiatives, which take a proactive approach in teaching sexual responsibility, including abstinence, to our young people.
Therefore, the Missouri Republican Party SUPPORTS:
- Overturning Roe v. Wade and the appointment of federal and state judges who respect the sanctity of innocent human life.
- Current state law providing women seeking an abortion with information regarding alternatives such as adoption, providing a reflection period of 72 hours between providing such information and the performing of the abortion, and increasing tax credits to encourage alternatives to abortion.
- Current state law requiring that a minor obtain parental notification and consent before obtaining an abortion.
- Legislation requiring that a minor obtain parental notification and consent before obtaining invasive birth control or contraceptive measures.
- Current state law banning abortion when the baby’s heart beat begins and banning partial-birth abortions.
- Current state law preventing taxpayer money from subsidizing abortions or organizations performing abortions or making abortion referrals.
- Current state law preventing public employees or agencies from making abortion referrals or otherwise facilitating abortion in any way, shape, or form.
- Current state law ensuring abortion clinics meet the same Department of Health standards required of comparable surgical facilities in the state.
- The compassionate work of individuals and organizations offering alternatives to abortions by meeting the physical, emotional, and financial needs of pregnant women and those support systems necessary for legal adoption.
- Legislation to correct the incorrect definition of human cloning placed in the Missouri constitution.
- Legislation to prohibit both the public funding and the conducting of all human cloning, scientifically known as Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer, and research requiring or encouraging the destruction of living human embryos.
- Efforts to encourage Economic Development and job growth by focusing on ethical forms of stem cell research instead of research destroying living human embryos.
- Legislation to prohibit and penalize coercion of women to have an abortion.
- Legislation to prohibit “assisted suicide” and “euthanasia.”
- Legislation banning abortions using the “dilation and evacuation” method, also known as “dismemberment abortion.”
- Legislation clearly strengthening regulations regarding the disposition of fetal remains and prohibiting any sale, procurement, or donation of fetal remains for valuable consideration of any kind.
- Legislation to insert the protective language of 196.1127 on all economic development bills as follows: “Public funds shall not be expended, paid, or granted to or on behalf of an existing or proposed research project that involves abortion services, human cloning, or prohibited human research as defined in RSMo Section 196.1127.”
- Rescinding the HHS definition of “religious employer” which excludes charities, hospitals, and colleges serving people of faith and subjects these entities to the mandate that all private health care plans must cover sterilization, abortifacients, and contraception.
Family
The traditional family is the foundation of our great history and is critical to our future. Building futures through hard work and personal responsibility are American values to be encouraged by government policy.
Therefore, the Missouri Republican Party SUPPORTS:
- Marriage as being between one man and one woman.
- Efforts to promote healthy marriages.
- A permanent end to the marriage penalty in the tax code.
- The protection of the lives of In Vitro Fertilized embryos and all other human embryos from the beginning of biological development.
Faith
Missouri’s many and diverse faith communities are critical to the rich fabric of our society. Government has nothing to fear from people of faith and much to gain. Faith communities should be embraced and allowed to offer assistance to those in need without undue bureaucratic interference. The most powerful sources of charity, virtue, and shared prosperity in our society are not found in government, but in families, houses of worship, charities, and free markets. The Missouri Republican Party believes in protecting the religious freedom of citizens.
Therefore, the Missouri Republican Party SUPPORTS:
- Freedom to practice religion, as an individual choice, including the ability to pray in school.
- Conscience legislation so that no person, business, or organization can be penalized for its exercise of religious freedom by not providing services that violate their religious beliefs.
- Protecting the acknowledgment of God in our public life.
- Keeping the phrase “one nation under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance.
- Keeping “In God We Trust” on our currency and in other public declarations.
- All efforts to honor and preserve America’s religious heritage, including the public display of the Ten Commandments or other religious symbols, and to remain true to the principles upon which this nation was founded.
- The Prayer Amendment, adopted overwhelmingly by Missourians in August 2012.
