The 62 page Republican party platform, adopted on 29 August, proposes changes that would affect healthcare, public safety, and other social issues for millions of US citizens.

The platform, agreed at the party’s national convention, calls for repeal of the Affordable Care Act (the healthcare reorganisation law passed by the administration of Barack Obama in 2010). It would outlaw abortion, restrict access to contraception services, give a fertilised egg the status of a human being, expand access to guns, and make big changes in the Medicare and Medicaid health insurance programmes.1

Party platforms often suggest broad changes that may not be put into effect after a party wins an election. Nevertheless, the New York Times pointed out that the Republican platform is far more right wing than it was in the Reagan era.2

The platform says that …