MILWAUKEE (LifeSiteNews) — Representatives of former President and presumptive Republican White House nominee Donald Trump proposed on Monday a dramatically shortened Republican Party platform that removes the GOP’s longstanding support for federal preborn protections as well as the party’s opposition to homosexual “marriage,” confirming fears voiced in recent days by social conservative leaders about the party drifting leftward under its current standard-bearer.

Last updated in 2016, the official position of the 58-page Republican Party platform is to “support a human life amendment to the Constitution and legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to children before birth.” It also declares that “[t]raditional marriage and family, based on marriage between one man and one woman, is the foundation for a free society” and calls for that understanding to be reflected in law, including by the “reversal” of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 Obergefell ruling that forces all 50 states to recognize homosexual “marriage.”

READ: Gallup poll shows decreased support for homosexual relationships among Republicans and Democrats

On Monday, however, the Washington Post reported that Trump aides have submitted to the Republican National Committee’s platform committee a 16-page draft written largely by former Trump assistant Vincent Haley that drops the condemnation of Obergefell and any discussion of homosexual “marriage” at all, and while it preserves opposition to men in women’s sports and taxpayer funding and promotion of “gender transitions,” it reportedly “stops short of seeking to bar parents from seeking medical treatment [i.e., ‘sex changes’] for minor children.”

Drawing the most attention is the proposed new passage about abortion: 

We proudly stand for families and life. We believe that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States guarantees that no person can be denied life or liberty without due process and that the states are, therefore, free to pass laws protecting those rights. After 51 years, because of us, that power has been given to the states and to a vote of the people. We will oppose late term abortion while supporting mothers and policies that advance prenatal care, access to birth control, and IVF (fertility treatments [sic]).

As feared by pro-life and social conservative leaders in recent days, while giving lip service to the Fourteenth Amendment, the new language drops support for federal pro-life action in favor of leaving the issue to the states (despite the Amendment expressly tasking Congress with enforcing its provisions). It also endorses birth control (many common methods of which function as abortifacients) and embryo-destructive in vitro fertilization.

READ: IVF linked to intellectual disability, autism in children: large study

Committee members will review the language on Monday before voting on proposed amendments on Tuesday, but pro-lifers are also sounding the alarm about the Trump campaign’s move to block journalists and cameras from this week’s platform deliberations.

“We reach consensus by presenting our ideas and playing by the rules. And I am very concerned about closing down the process,” Family Research Council president Tony Perkins said. “The Republican Party should not be operating as we point out the left so often does — wanting to silence opposition.”

Several pro-life leaders who initially expressed concern about potential weakening of the GOP platform, including Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America president Marjorie Dannenfelser and Students for Life president Kristan Hawkins, appeared satisfied by the draft’s reference to the Fourteenth Amendment. Dannenfelser said it means the “Republican Party remains strongly pro-life at the national level,” while Hawkins called it a “significant contribution” for life.

Republican U.S. Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina (both of whom endorsed Trump), along with former Trump administration Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, expressed opposition to changing the platform’s pro-life plank, but have not yet reacted to the draft language at the time of this writing.

READ: Support for homosexual ‘marriage’ declining in the US as more Americans wake up to LGBT agenda

One Republican taking the opposite stance has been U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who is reportedly one of the finalists in consideration to become Trump’s vice-presidential running mate. He told CNN Sunday that “our platform has to reflect our nominee, and our nominee’s position happens to be one grounded in reality.” Rubio added that he did not expect Republicans to lose support over the change “because I don’t think that there’s much of an option here” given the radicalism of the Democrat alternative.

Monday’s development echoes Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner’s reported desire in 2020 to replace the GOP’s 58-page platform with a single-page list of “10 principles,” though pushback at the time led to the GOP simply leaving the 2016 platform in place.

For the past year, Trump has worked to stake out a “middle ground” on abortion of closing the door on further federal action, urging state laws to contain exceptions for rape, incest, and “medical emergencies,” embracing embryo-destructive IVF, and contrasting himself against Democrats’ support for late-term abortion and infanticide. The about-face has caused consternation among pro-lifers, while most continue to accept him as preferable to the Democrats’ virtually unlimited abortion-on-demand alternative.

READ: Google bans viral video showing former abortionist describing how abortions are done

It remains to be seen what impact Trump’s efforts will ultimately have on pro-life turnout in November, but it comes as Democrat panic over incumbent President and presumptive Democrat nominee Joe Biden’s disastrous presidential debate performance has unleashed widespread panic over his true health and odds against Trump, including calls to replace him as the nominee, which Biden has so far resisted.

National polling aggregations by RealClearPolitics and RaceToTheWH indicate a widening popular vote lead for Trump since the debate, with the former president’s leads in swing states translating to a seemingly durable Electoral College advantage over Biden.