Victory in Reno, Nevada! The Pro-Abortion Plank of the Libertarian Party is no more!
On its 50th Anniversary, the Libertarian Party, for the first time in it’s history, does not have a pro-abortion position in its National Platform! The beginning of the end of the Abortion Plank occurred at the 2020 Libertarian Convention in Orlando, Florida. See historical account below. Two months prior to that Convention, Albert Veldhuyzen, Executive Director of Liberty Pro-Life and the Abolish Abortion PAC, began the effort to abolish Plank 1.5 by founding the Libertarian Party Abolish Abortion Plank Caucus. At the time, it was the only group within the LP officially committed to the goal of distancing the LP from the barbarous practice of abortion. At the time, the Mises Caucus was neutral on the question, though its Chairman, Michael Heise, supported our efforts. After the Convention, Mr. Heise successfully convinced Mises to fully back the effort in 2022, which was also strengthened by the official formation of the Pro-Life Libertarian Caucus. It’s Chairman, Russell Brooksbank, has the distinction of having forced the vote on Plank 1.5 deletion at both the 2020 and 2022 Conventions. His strategic acumen and tactical convention floor maneuvers led us to victory! Also, without the organizing prowess and the commitment of the Mises Caucus, this victory would not have been possible either. The graphic on the Left shows that we exceeded the number required to put the Plank to a vote by over 224% and that out of 2926 tokens cast, 2252 were in favor of Plank deletion.
The graphic on the Left shows that Plank 1.5 was deleted with 512 votes in favor and 268 votes against. In effect, 66% of the delegates voted to remake the Libertarian Party into an officially neutral Party on the issue of abortion. Whereas replacing or amending the Plank would have taken a 2/3rds affirmative vote, a simple deletion of the Plank only required a simple majority. Enough Libertarians came to realize that Plank 1.5 was internally inconsistent with the rest of the LP Platform and the LP’s commitment to the non-aggression principle. It is entirely consistent for a good libertarian to believe that government has a role in restricting access to a procedure that kills innocent human life. Now that pro-lifers are no longer classified as second-class by the LP Platform, this opens the gates for the wider pro-life liberty movement to affect further change within the LP, especially at the State and local levels. There are still many LP chapters who hold to a “pro-choice” position. These official positions need to be eradicated and replaced by either neutral language, no language, or pro-life language, depending on local circumstances. We encourage all who believe that all living human beings have an inherent right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to get involved with the Pro-Life Libertarian Caucus and continue the fight for life and liberty within the Libertarian Party. This is also a tremendous time to join the LP and make a difference. Because a respect for life is inseparable to the cause of liberty, it’s essential that the LP attract more pro-lifers and more liberty solutions permeate the pro-life movement.
The historic 16 minutes that led to the deletion of Plank 1.5 is linked here to the Left. The Libertarian Party Platform Plank 1.5 stated: “Recognizing that abortion is a sensitive issue and that people can hold good-faith views on all sides, we believe that government should be kept out of the matter, leaving the question to each person for their conscientious consideration.” This was recognized by many delegates as an absolutist pro-abortion position despite the flowery language regarding “good faith views” because it categorically affirmed that government had no role in forbidding abortion until the time of birth. This is a position out of step with 81% of Americans. Also, only 7 States take such a position in law, while 43 States restrict late-term abortions. There were plenty of Libertarian candidates who publicly dissented from Plank 1.5. The last LP presidential candidate in 2020 stated: “So what I would like to do is drop that one barrier [Abortion Plank] that seems to be a big barrier, so that we can increase membership and then get people to look at the other things.” Jo Jorgensen was right because it is documented that this is the number one reason that small government advocates would not join the Libertarian Party. Others such as Justin Amash were also opposed to Plank 1.5. By deleting the Plank, we did a great service to them and to the libertarian movement in general.
Historical Overview–Orlando 2020 LP Convention
The Anti-Abortion Plank sentiment was clearly growing within the LP! It came up for a vote at the last Convention because 1,041 tokens were cast for deletion (every person gets to cast 5 tokens), while only 210 tokens were required for an up or down vote–that is 5 times the amount required for scheduling a vote. The last time this was voted at the convention before last, it only received 439 tokens. For a description of the token system and a history of the abortion votes, click here.
As the video to the left demonstrates, the Convention Chair officially declared the vote of physically present Convention delegates a tie, but because the on-line remote voters went 59/38% in favor of retention (see screen shot to left), the Chair did not entertain a motion for a recorded vote, deeming it “dilatory.” Combining both online and Orlando votes, the final tally was approximately 55/45% in favor of retention. If there had been no online presence (which was an anomaly necessitated only by the Pandemic) and if some anti-abortion plank delegates had not left, we could have won this vote. If we had a total of approximately 85 more votes, the Plank would have been deleted–this is the closest it’s gotten and the momentum was clearly on our side! We were vindicated in Reno, Nevada in 2022. Linked here is a very well researched article by the LP Secretary, Caryn Ann Harlos, regarding the history of the Abortion Plank.
Hamstringing Prolife Libertarian Candidates with a Pro-Abortion Platform was not a Pragmatic Winning Strategy!
As noted above and on the candidates page of this site, there have been many pro-life Libertarians but their message, being out of synch with the Party Platform, was less likely to be taken seriously, especially in “Red” States with significant numbers of pro-life voters. The best way to deal with this was to take this issue off the table in 2022 and 2024 by deleting Plank 1.5. Mission Accomplished! LP presumptive frontrunners for the Presidential nomination in 2024 include Justin Amash and Dave Smith, both pro-lifers who will no longer be embarrassed by the LP Platform!
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