In 2016, the Republican Party platform took such a strong position against abortion that it endorsed the notion that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees a right to life, liberty, and property, should be interpreted to include an abortion ban.

At the time, Roe v. Wade was still the law of the land, there was a vacant seat on the Supreme Court left by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, and the GOP had just nominated for president a billionaire who had never held elected office and had publicly flip-flopped on abortion.