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Mitt Romney on Abortion and Birth Control
I'd love to have an America that didn't have abortion. But that's not what the American people [want] right now. And so I'd like to see Roe v. Wade overturned and allow the states to put in place pro-life legislation. I recognize that for many people, that is considered an act of murder, to have an abortion. It is without question the taking of a human life. And I believe that a civilized society must respect the sanctity of the human life. But we have two lives involved here--a mom, an unborn child. We have to have concern for both lives & show the expression of our compassion & our consideration and work to change hearts & minds, and that's the way in my view we'll ultimately have a society without abortion.
2007 GOP debate at UNH, sponsored by Fox News Sep 5, 2007
Q: Your aides say you see ending abortion as a two-step process: rolling back Roe v. Wade, which would leave it legal in some states; and then a constitutional amendment to ban it nationwide. If abortion is murder, how can you live with it being legal in some states? A: I'd love to have an America that didn't have abortion. But that's not what the American people [want] right now. And so I'd like to see Roe v. Wade overturned and allow the states to put in place pro-life legislation. I recognize that for many people, that is considered an act of murder, to have an abortion. It is without question the taking of a human life. And I believe that a civilized society must respect the sanctity of the human life. But we have two lives involved here--a mom, an unborn child. We have to have concern for both lives & show the expression of our compassion & our consideration and work to change hearts & minds, and that's the way in my view we'll ultimately have a society without abortion.
2007 GOP debate at UNH, sponsored by Fox News Sep 5, 2007
Q: In a 1994 debate with Senator Kennedy, you said "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 U.S. Senate candidate. I believe that since Roe v. Wade has been the law for 20 years we should sustain and support it." Further confusing matters, the Boston Globe reported in 1994 that "as a Mormon lay leader [you] counseled Mormon women not to have abortions except in cases of rape, incest, or where the mother’s life was at risk." Governor: What is your position on abortion today? On Roe? How do you account for what is obviously a change - certainly publicly - on the issue? Romney: My position has changed and I have acknowledged that. How that came about is that several years ago, in the course of the stem-cell-research debate I met with a pair of experts from Harvard. At one point the experts pointed out that embryonic-stem-cell research should not be a moral issue because the embryos were destroyed at 14 days. After the meeting I looked over at Beth Myers, my chief of staff, and we both had exactly the same reaction - it just hit us hard just how much the sanctity of life had been cheapened by virtue of the Roe v. Wade mentality. And from that point forward, I said to the people of Massachusetts, "I will continue to honor what I pledged to you, but I prefer to call myself pro-life." The state of Massachusetts is a pro-choice state and when I campaigned for governor I said that I would not change the law on abortion. But I do believe that the one-size-fits-all, abortion-on-demand-for-all-nine-months decision in Roe v. Wade does not serve the country well and is another example of judges making the law instead of interpreting the Constitution. What I would like to see is the Court return the issue to the people to decide. The Republican party is and should remain the pro-life party and work to change hearts and minds and create a culture of life where every child is welcomed and protected by law and the weakest among us are protected. I understand there are people of good faith on both sides of the issue. They should be able to make and advance their case in democratic forums with civility, mutual respect, and confidence that our democratic process is the best place to handle these issues.
Massachusetts' Legislature is overwhelmingly Democratic, and Romney's first term as governor barely touched on the issues dear to social conservatives until recently. His veto of the emergency contraception measure is also likely to be overridden. That bill requires hospital emergency room doctors to offer the medication to rape victims, and would make it available without prescription from pharmacies.
Associated Press on NewsMax.com Jul 27, 2005
Romney vetoes law on pill, takes aim at Roe v. Wade.
I am pro-life. I believe that abortion is the wrong choice except in cases of incest, rape, and to save the life of the mother. I wish the people of America agreed, and that the laws of our nation could reflect that view. But while the nation remains so divided over abortion, I believe that the states, through the democratic process, should determine their own abortion laws and not have them dictated by judicial mandate.
Governor Romney, Boston Globe, Op-Ed, July 26, 2005
Governor Mitt Romney issued the following statement praising the U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act: "Today, our nation's highest court reaffirmed the value of life in America by upholding a ban on a practice that offends basic human decency. This decision represents a step forward in protecting the weakest and most innocent among us."
I am pro-life. I believe that abortion is the wrong choice except in cases of incest, rape, and to save the life of the mother. I wish the people of America agreed, and that the laws of our nation could reflect that view. But while the nation remains so divided over abortion, I believe that the states, through the democratic process, should determine their own abortion laws and not have them dictated by judicial mandate.
Governor Romney, Boston Globe, Op-Ed, July 26, 2005
Believes that abortion should be banned in all cases except rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother.
CivilLiberty.com Profile: Mitt Romney (Dec 1, 2006)
I am pro-life. I believe that abortion is the wrong choice except in cases of incest, rape, and to save the life of the mother. I wish the people of America agreed, and that the laws of our nation could reflect that view. But while the nation remains so divided over abortion, I believe that the states, through the democratic process, should determine their own abortion laws and not have them dictated by judicial mandate.
Governor Romney, Boston Globe, Op-Ed, July 26, 2005
Believes that abortion should be banned in all cases except rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother.
CivilLiberty.com Profile: Mitt Romney (Dec 1, 2006)
"I'm pro-life, my positions are pro-life, the idea that I am in favor of taxpayer funding for abortion is just wrong. I oppose using taxpayer funding for abortion."
In March, 2005, Romney signed an annual proclamation establishing a ''Right to Privacy Day" to mark the anniversary of Baird v. Eisenstadt, a 1972 Supreme Court ruling legalizing birth control for unmarried people.
Boston Globe, 3/25/2005
Clearly the subject of who pays for abortion is not one of insignificant consequence. Today, more than one-third of US women are eligible for publicly funded abortions. This public funding has resulted in 630,000 abortions each year,5 which totals $307 million dollars each year. When we say "publicly funded," this means that you paid for a fraction of this abortion through taxes. If you wonder about your daughter at home, 4.9 million sexually active teenagers also get publicly funded supported services (abortion is included in these services). So alas, abortion is an expensive choice we are providing for many women and especially young women, at the expense of many who believe it is akin to murder. Governor Mitt Romney also agrees that this is too high a cost to American taxpayers and American liberty. Since we can't agree on the ethics of abortion, we ought to at least be able reach a consensus that it is wrong for the state to force more than half of our nation's tax payers to fund something they strongly oppose. Another reason to agree with Romney's opposition to public funding of abortion is that the Guttmacher Institute found that 20-35% of eligible women chose not to have an abortion when the funding was not available to them to have an abortion.
In a Planned Parenthood questionnaire he filled out during his 2002 gubernatorial run, Romney checked 'yes' to a question asking, "Do you support the teaching of responsible, age-appropriate, factually accurate health and sexuality education, including information about both abstinence and contraception, in public schools?"
Gov. Romney Fought The Battle To Promote Abstinence Education In The Classroom. Gov. Mitt Romney today announced that Healthy Futures, a health program that promotes the benefits of abstinence, has been awarded the contract to manage the state's abstinence education program for middle school students. It Will Be The First Time That The State Will Spend Federal Abstinence Education Funds In Massachusetts For Classroom Programs. It will be the first time that the state will spend federal abstinence education funds in Massachusetts for classroom programs. The state has received $700,000 in abstinence money yearly since 1998, but the money has gone only toward a media campaign urging teens to wait before having sex.