Sekulow misrepresents Romney’s position on abortion

March 12, 2007 – 11:41 pm

Mitt Romney’s campaign has a problem with them misrepresenting his positions. Romney has misrepresented his position on abortion, as has his spokesman. Now, Jay Sekulow, one of Romney’s advisors on social conservative issues was asked by a student at CPAC how Romney stood on the human life amendment. See what he said:


That doesn’t match Romney’s statements in an interview with National Journal (after the jump).

Does Jay Sekulow not know Romney’s position on abortion? If so, how is he doing outreach to social conservatives? What is he telling them?

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Romney’s letter comparing his record to Brownback’s

February 13, 2007 – 12:57 pm

Wait. Last week Romney said he was "always for life". At the same time, his staff was saying that he was pro-choice until he was elected (what will be be after he is elected this time?) Check out the letter after the jump.

I’m confused about where he stands. So is his staff. So is Romney.
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Brownback campaign: Romney misleading voters

February 12, 2007 – 5:41 pm

I think that this press release just about says it all. No need to comment. Apparently this was triggered by the Romney campaign circulating statements comparing Sam Brownback and Mitt Romney’s record on abortion:

 Mitt Romney’s Campaign Misleads Voters about Senator Brownback’s Position on Abortion

"Mitt Romney’s flip flops are enough to make John Kerry blush."

Alexandria, VA – Documentation surfaced over the weekend that the Romney for President Exploratory Committee is misleading voters.

In an e-mail circulated to right-to-life leaders on February 8, 2007, a key Romney staffer wrote: "Just like Sam Brownback, Mitt was once pro-choice but changed his views upon being elected to office… When Brownback was elected to office, that is when he also had a conversion and voted with the pro-life movement."

Brownback for President National Campaign Committee Member Dr. Jack Willke, who was President of National Right to Life for ten years, responded: "Senator Brownback has always been pro-life, and has never made a statement or cast any vote to the contrary."

This false allegation by the Romney campaign comes in light of recent evidence that Romney has switched positions on abortion at least three times. Below are direct quotes from Mitt Romney on the issue of abortion:

CHRONOLOGY OF MITT ROMNEY’S ABORTION POSITIONS (IN HIS OWN WORDS):

1994: Mitt Romney was pro-choice

"I believe that abortion should be safe and legal in this country. I have since the time that my mom took that position when she ran in 1970 as a US Senate candidate. I believe that since Roe v. Wade has been the law for 20 years we should sustain and support it." (Joan Vennochi, "Romney’s Revolving World," The Boston Globe, 3/2/06)


2001: Mitt Romney was not pro-choice

"I do not wish to be labeled pro-choice." (Mitt Romney, Letter to the Editor, The Salt Lake Tribune, 7/12/01)

2002: Mitt Romney was again pro-choice

"I respect and will protect a woman’s right to choose. This choice is a deeply personal one … Women should be free to choose based on their own beliefs, not mine and not the government’s." (Stephanie Ebbert, "Clarity Sought On Romney’s Abortion Stance," The Boston Globe, 7/3/05)

2007: Mitt Romney acknowledges he was "effectively pro-choice," but says he "was always for life."

January 2007: "Over the last multiple years, as you know, I have been effectively pro-choice." (Bruce Smith, "Romney Campaigns in SC with Sen. DeMint," The Associated Press, 1/29/07)

February 2007: "I am firmly pro-life… I was always for life." (Jim Davenport, "Romney Affirms Opposition to Abortion," The Associated Press, 2/9/2007)

"Mitt Romney’s flip flops are enough to make John Kerry blush," Brownback for President Campaign Manager Rob Wasinger said. "It is absurd of Mitt Romney to compare himself to Senator Brownback on the right to life issue."

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Did Romney mandate taxpayer-funded abortion?

February 5, 2007 – 11:15 am

The latest attack on Mitt Romney’s abortion conversion narrative involves his signature healthcare plan — which he now is distancing himself from. The question, raised by Red State and The Prowler and based on more information from Mass Resistance, is whether the healthcare plan expanded publicly funded abortion, which Romney was on record supporting in 2002.

Romney’s defense from both K-Lo and a number of Redstate commenters seems to be that Romney did not violate his 2002 campaign promise to not change abortion laws.

There are several problems with that.

First, that isn’t Romney’s position anymore. Remember. He converted? No one would take "I won’t change the law" as a credible pro-life position. Now Romney’s position is:

As governor, I’ve had several pieces of legislation reach my desk, which would have expanded abortion rights in Massachusetts. Each of those I vetoed. Every action I’ve taken as the governor that relates to the sanctity of human life, I have stood on the side of life.

This is the standard that Romney should be held to, not his pro-choice position. This is especially important because, again, this took place in 2006, about 18 months after Romney’s supposed conversion.

Second, this does change law. This law requires everyone to have health insurance and creates a subsidy for those who cannot afford it. Therefore, it subsidizes the insurance of poor women. Since Massachusetts law requires abortion to be covered, this creates a new subsidy of abortions by the state government. I think that most Republican pro-life advocates would consider creating new entitlements that subsidize abortions expanding abortion rights.

Third, when Romney talks about the over-regulation of Massachusetts health insurance, he explicitly gives the example that the law requires that men have coverage for in-vitro fertilization. And he worked to repeal that requirement. But he did not work to make sure that abortion wasn’t covered.

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Romney’s new approach on abortion

January 30, 2007 – 6:21 am

I noticed this in the coverage of Romney’s visit to South Carolina and then again in his Nightline appearance. He is more clearly coming out and saying that he had been pro-choice. This is clearly an attempt defuse the issue. First Nightline:

We all learn from experience. And I’m just like other people in this nation. Not everything I believed 12 or 13 years ago is the same today, with regards to the issue of abortion. And so about two years ago, I said I am pro-life. And prior to that time, I had a different position.

This is a much cleaner and simpler position than he had previously. Apparently, he was asked about this in South Carolina too. He said:

"Over the last multiple years, as you know, I have been effectively pro-choice," he said. "I never called myself that as a label but I was effectively pro-choice and that followed a personal experience in my extended family that led to that conclusion."

That family member was killed in an illegal abortion in the 1960s, Romney said.

He then talks about the Harvard Stem Cell Institute discussion:

"It struck me very powerfully at that point that the Roe v. Wade approach has so cheapened the value of human life that somebody could think it’s not a moral issue to destroy embryos," Romney said.

He added every decision he made as governor "in a very liberal state has been on the side of favoring life," he said. "I am firmly pro-life."

It seems to me that he hadn’t really called himself pro-choice in the past. He’d tried to avoid that label. Now the questions will be whether people believe what he is saying and whether they trust him. The other question will be whether his stance that his decisions have "been on the side of favoring life". My sense is that when pro-lifers drill down on these, they will still be unsatisfied.

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Romney attacked as a flip-flop-flip-flop-flipper on abortion

December 19, 2006 – 12:02 pm

Jerry Zandstra, a member of Sam Brownback’s exploratory committee, sent the following letter to a (probably very) large number of Michigan conservative activists.  Some excerpts and the whole letter:

Excerpts:

Mitt Romney, current governor of Massachusetts and likely presidential candidate has had a tough couple of weeks.  It isn’t what others have said about him.  Rather, his own words have caught up with him.  What his words seem to indicate is someone whose positions on social issues important to conservatives either are wrong or have changed direction so many times as to render them meaningless.

And:

      When Gov. Romney was considering a run to be the governor of Utah, he wavered, claiming that he was now pro-life.  His defenders claimed that what he said in Massachusetts was “a carefully crafted position intended to sound more firm than it was” because “he was running against Ted Kennedy in a state that was 80 percent pro-choice and to have any chance at all, he was waffling.”     

      Only a few years later, Romney was back in Massachusetts, running for his current position as their governor.  When prodded by his pro-choice opponent in a debate, Gov. Romney said, “Let me make this very clear.  I will preserve and protect a woman’s right to choose.”  In that same election, he endorsed embryonic stem cell research,  refused to take a position on human cloning, and endorsed Medicaid funding for abortions.  

As promised, the whole letter, after the jump
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Romney’s staff lies about abortion in South Carolina

December 17, 2006 – 6:24 pm

In an article in the Spartanburg Herald-Journal (SC), a spokesman for Mitt Romney’s Commonwealth PAC is quoted:

"Gov. Romney has always stood on the side of life, he’s been a fierce defender of the sanctity of marriage, and will continue to fight for those conservative principles. Gov. Romney is a person of faith, and that’s important to most Americans. He leads by example with character and integrity, and has been married to the same woman for more than 30 years," said Young, who notes that he is a Southern Baptist and Bob Jones University graduate.

This is a lie. Redstate has documented this well in response to an interview in which Romney himself said something similar. And LifeNews describes Romney as "recently became pro-life".

Indeed, just today, Romney’s hometown paper, the Boston Globe, published a list of  Romney’s "Changing Views". On abortion it said:

Abortion

Then: In 1994 and 2002, Romney expressed strong support for abortion rights. "I respect and will protect a women’s right to choose," he wrote in a 2002 NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts questionnaire. "This choice is a deeply personal one. Women should be free to choose based on their own beliefs, not mine and not the government’s."

Now: Romney said his education on stem cell research led him to reevaluate his position. "I’m committed to promoting the culture of life," Romney said in an interview with the National Review last week. "Like Ronald Reagan, and [former Illinois congressman] Henry Hyde, and others who became pro life, I had this issue wrong in the past."

"Always stood on the side of life"? He lies. And when he’s caught, he calls it a conversion.

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