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Chronology of Mitt Romney’s Abortion Views
The RED font
highlights his pro-choice views.
The
BLUE font highlights his
pro-life public statements.
The GREEN font
highlights his unclear statements.
-
(Romney) “is personally
opposed to abortion (and) would not make any move to reverse Roe v. Wade.”
(02/94)
-
“There is no conflict between
(my) role as an official of a church with conservative social positions
and (my) role as a candidate. . . My church makes it very clear that
religion and politics and one’s personal views on political issues are
quite separate.” (02/94)
- “Issues such as parental
consent for teen-ages should be resolved at the state level.” (02/94)
Please see article regarding Romney’s
chosen running mate for Lt. Governor and her views opposing the age of
consent.
- “I would oppose spending public
money for Medicaid-funded abortions. . . “I am not in favor of government
funding of abortion.” (02/94)
- “I don’t think government should
either promote or prevent abortion.” (02/94)
- “Romney is running as a
supporter of the 1973 Roe v. Wade U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing
abortion, but opposes the proposed
codification of Roe, the Freedom of Choice Act.” (05/94)
- “Romney also opposes public funding of abortion
except in cases where pregnancy is the result of rape or incest or
threatens the life of the mother.”
- Romney on the pro-life caucus:
“I’m not seeking their endorsement. . . I think it’s important that
people see me not as a pro-life candidate.” (05/94)
-
“Romney stopped short of
saying he would reject an endorsement of the anti-abortion forces.”
(05/94)
- Failed Republican senatorial candidate Janet
Jeghelian, a former radio talk-show host, said concerns about Romney’s
abortion stand would keep her from supporting him: “I am clearly
prochoice, he (Romney) is clearly not. . . “he is talking out of both
sides of his mouth. You can’t be on the picket fence.” (05/94)
- “Romney, who has been accused of
waffling on abortion, came down more firmly in the abortion rights camp
yesterday, voicing support for the RU-486 ‘morning after’ abortion pill
and a bill to ensure clinic access.” (05/94)
-
Romney: “There are people at
both extremes on the choice or abortion issue, and I don’t find myself at
either one of the extremes.” (05/94)
- “(Romney) said he was ‘inclined
towards parental consent,’ but added the issue should be decided on the
state level.” (05/94)
- “Romney admitted he did not know Massachusetts law
requires the consent of both parents for women under age 18 to have an
abortion. ‘As I understand the law in Massachusetts, it is not required,
parental consent is not required,’ Romney said. ‘But I’m not familiar
with it. . . I don’t know what the requirement is in Massachusetts.”
(05/84)
- Romney on the morning-after pill
(RU-486): “I don’t really understand how it works or when it works by my
understanding is it’s an effective morning-after pill, and I think it
would be a positive thing to have women have the choice of taking the
morning-after pill. . . I would favor having it available.” (05/94)
- “(Roe v. Wade) has been the law
of the land for over 20 years, and – I do not want to change it, overturn
it, reverse it. I want it to remain the law of the land . . . the
Supreme Court will decide what are the bounds required by Roe v. Wade.”
(05/94)
- “Romney said he opposed mandating that states
provide abortion as part of Medicaid, preferring instead to leave that for
states to decide.” (05/94)
- Asked about the plight of poor
women in states that failed to fund abortion, Romney insisted other ways
could be found a pay for abortions: “I believe even among poor Americans
they can get the money together to have the procedure,” said Romney,
claiming that could be done by charitable organizations helping “or by
people saying, ‘I am going to save and use my own funds to carry out the
procedure,’ or in the cases of most clinics, saying we are going to do
this on a pro bono basis.” (05/94)
-
Romney said “he supports the
Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion while refusing to embrace a
‘pro-choice’ label or take a stand on parental consent issues. (06/94)
-
NARAL: “Romney’s opposition
to FOCA makes a mockery of his pro-choice credentials. . . Romney reflects
a national trend. If you oppose (FOCA), you’re not pro-choice. . . the
success or failure of the Romney strategy will have a strong impact on
whether a Republican presidential candidate two years from now can win by
saying he is ‘pro-choice’ while supporting Jim Crow abortion laws.”
(07/94)
- NARAL: “Romney has called on
local TV stations to refuse independent advertising from issue
organizations such as NARAL and other pro-choice groups.” (07/94)
- Romney: “My church
feels that abortion is not a good choice. However, my mother advocated
for the legalization of abortion. So they, like I, can live by and have
personal beliefs which celebrate the diversity of our society, and fight
for the right of all people to live by their own belief and to make their
own choices” (09/74)
- John Lakain: “(Romney) engaging in abortion-issue
deception.” (09/94)
- “Romney said he previously
was more critical of the Freedom of Choice Act because he was most
familiar with the House bill. ‘My understanding was that the Freedom of
Choice Act as being considered then prohibited parental consent,’ said
Romney. Romney said he would support the Senate version of the bill if it
simply codified the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision that
made abortion widely accessible.” (09/94)
- “(Romney) as a lay counselor in the Mormon Church,
told a single mother to give up her newborn child for adoption or face
excommunication.” Romney: “It is the woman’s decision. . . the case
reported by the Globe involved other issues which could not divulge
because of confidentiality policies.” “Romney has denied he ever
threatened the woman with excommunication.” (09/94)
- Romney opposed the House version
of the Freedom of Choice Act. “Romney said he opposed the House bill
because it would preclude states from requiring parental consent when
minors seek abortions. “I support the right of a state like Massachusetts
to have a law requiring parental consent prior to abortion,” he said.”
(09/94)
- The September issue of
Massachusetts Citizens For Life News endorsed Romney as the ‘logical vote
for those who value human life.’ (09/94)
- Abortion Report: “ROMNEY ACCEPTS
PRO-LIFERS’ ENDORSEMENT”
- Charles Manning, a Romney
adviser: “Romney has been ‘pro-choice’ since 1970.” (09/94)
- Manning: “Romney supports a
federal health care plan option that includes abortion services.” (09/94)
- Manning: “Romney believes health
care plans should be structured to leave it up to consumers whether to
seek abortion coverage.” (09/94)
- Manning: “Would vote for law
codifying the 1972 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion” (09/94)
- Manning: “Romney backs federal
funding for abortions as long as states can decide if they want the
money.” (09/94)
- Manning: “Romney does
support the so-called Freedom of Choice Act as long as it just codifies
the US Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision, but believes federal
funding of abortions should not be mandated.” (09/94)
- John Lakian: “He pandered just enough to get the
endorsement from the prolife groups and now he tells me he would vote for
the Freedom of Choice Act. It is just a goddamned lie.” (09/94)
- Mass Choice: “He is not pro-choice… He’s trying to
have it both ways. He’s anti-choice at heart. Massachusetts voters
deserve to know the truth.” (09/94)
- “Romney was opposed to the
Freedom of Choice Act earlier this summer before the state party’s
convention. . . Romney also said he opposed federal funding for abortion.”
(09/94)
- “Charles Manning, Romney’s political consultant,
acknowledged there has been some shift in Romney’s position. “As Mitt has
studied the issues with regard to choice more and more and talked with a
lot of people about them, he has become firmer in his position,” he
said.” (09/94)
- Janet Jeghelian: “I think he (Romney) has waffled. .
. At the time of the convention, he opposed public funding and he was
clearly against the freedom of Choice Act.” (09/94)
-
“Although Manning insisted
Romney had tried to be clear about his abortion position, several news
stories from last spring have Romney opposing federal funding of abortion
and disinclined to support the Freedom of Choice Act. For example, in
coverage of his Feb. 2 announcement of his candidacy, the Globe reported
that Romney had said he opposed Medicaid fund abortions. ‘I am not in
favor of government funding of abortion,’ he said. ‘I don’t think
government should either promote or prevent abortion.”” (09/94)
-
“A May 11 Boston Herald story
also listed Romney as opposed to the freedom of Choice Act. . . More
recently, Romney has said he would support the act if it merely codifies
Roe v. Wade, but had said he wouldn’t support versions that preclude a
state from having provisions requiring parental consent. He has also said
that he would leave the decision about Medicaid abortion to the states.”
(09/94)
- Sandy Felder, president of the Service Employees
International Union (Local 509), accused Romney of “trying to perpetrate a
fraud” on Massachusetts women. (09/94)
- Gamble: “Romney has in the past
said he opposed Medicaid funding of abortion- though more recently he has
said he would leave the issue up to the states - and has said states
should retain the right to adopt restrictions such as parental consent.”
(09/94)
- Catherine Sibble, former
president of a Republican abortion rights group, the Big Tent: “Romney,
who earlier in the campaign said he opposed federally funded abortion, now
supports Medicaid funding.” (09/94)
- Charles Manning: “Romney supports
federal funding in cases of rape, incest, or when a pregnancy risks the
life of the mother.” (09/940
- Manning: “Romney also supports
public funding if the state wants to use federal money that way, but he
doesn’t believe the federal government should mandate it onto the states.”
(09/94)
- Joyce Cuhna, the executive director of MassChoice:
“Mitt Romney is multiple choice,” Cunha said, citing his hesitancy to
support full federal funding for abortions and his refusal to support a
Senate bill to codify abortion rights into law.
- Kate Michelman, president of the National Abortion
and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL): “Denounced Republican Mitt
Romney as a ‘a great pretender’ trying to mask his opposition to abortion
rights with moderate rhetoric.” (10/94)
- Michelman: “Mitt Romney, stop pretending. . . We
need honesty in our public life, not your campaign of deception to conceal
your anti-choice views.” (10/94)
- “Romney said his record of
supporting abortion rights back to his mother’s 1970 Michigan campaign for
the US Senate, three years before Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme
Court case legalizing abortion.” (10/94)
- Romney: “I don’t think it’s
NARAL’s position to say who’s pro-choice and who’s not pro-choice… I
joined my mother in 1970 when she said she was in favor of legalizing
abortion. I guess they’d say she wasn’t pro-choice because we didn’t have
those items to vote for.” (10/94)
-
“Romney said he supports
requiring parental consent for minors to obtain an abortion, though he
thinks the Massachusetts law, which requires two-parent consent (with a
provision for judicial bypass), might be ‘extreme.”” (10/94)
-
“Asked about waiting period
before a woman can obtain an abortion, Romney replied: ‘That is something
the state has the power to decide; I’d let them make that decision.’”
(10/94)
-
“Romney, who advocates
abortion rights as a candidate, acknowledges that as a Mormon lay leader
he counseled Mormon women not to have abortions except in cases of rape,
incest, or where the mother’s life was at risk.” (10/94)
- Sen. Ted Kennedy on Romney’s Flip-Flops: “If we give
him two more weeks, he may even vote for me” (10/94)
-
Hotline: “Romney’s abortion
Contortion: Romney, ‘who advocates abortion rights as a candidate,
acknowledges that as a Mormon lay leader he counseled Mormon women not to
have abortions except in cases of rape, incest, or where the mother’s life
was at risk.’ Romney said ‘there was no conflict between him advising
against abortions as a religious leader and espousing an abortion rights
position as a political candidate.”” (10/94)
- From the Senate debate: “Romney,
a Mormon who is personally opposed to abortion, was asked to reconcile his
personal beliefs with his support for abortion rights. Romney said his
personal beliefs had no place in the race and added that his commitment to
legal abortion stemmed from the death of a close relative during an
illegal abortion. The elder Romney later identified the family member as
his daughter’s sister-in-law.” (10/94)
- Romney revealed that a close
relative died of an illegal abortion years ago. “Since that time my
mother and my family have been committed to the belief that we can believe
as we want, but we will not force our beliefs on others on that matter,
and you will not see my wavering on that.” (10/94)
-
“Romney,
a Mormon who is personally opposed to abortion, also explained that in his
personal life he had counseled women not to have abortions,
but that as a senator he would be pro-choice.” (10/94)
- Kennedy on Romney: “I am pro-choice, my opponent is
multiple choice.” (10/94)
-
Boston Globe: “Romney has,
in fact, been a moving target on abortion. In May he said he opposed the
codification of Roe v. Wade into federal law, through the Freedom of
Choice Act. Later that month, he said it was “possible” that he would
support that. But in his September debate with GOP Primary challenger
John Lakian, Romney said he opposed the House version of the Freedom of
Choice Act.” (10/94)
- “I don’t wish to be labeled pro-choice,” Romney
wrote this week in a letter to the editor of The Salt Lake Tribune.
(07/01)
- “That upset him to be characterized as pro-choice,”
said Kem Gardner, a developer, political activist and Romney friend. “He
has told me he is not pro-choice. He believes in the right choice – and
he believes the right choice (in the case of unwanted pregnancy) is
adoption.” (07/01)
- Asked about Romney’s stand in favor of legal
abortion during his unsuccessful 1994 campaign against Massachusetts Sen.
Edward “Ted” Kennedy, Gardner said that was a carefully crafted position
intended to sound more firm than it was. “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,” said Gardner. (07/01)
- The Deseret News (Utah): “Romney, 54, was a golden
boy of Massachusetts politics in the early 1990s when he ran against
Kennedy and made a good showing. Romney was seen as a moderate candidate,
and there has been recent controversy about any office he may seek in
conservative Utah because of his stands on abortion.
Romney says he is and has been, pro-life,
although he was described as less-than-an-ardent pro-life candidate in
that race. Romney was upset over some of the newspaper accounts of
his abortion stands this summer, calling reporters to “set the record
straight” about his pro-life credentials.” (08/01)
- Utah Chronicle/University Wire: “Mitt Romney can
return to Massachusetts to seek public office, where he can continue lying
about his stance on abortion.” (10/01)
- The Deseret News (Utah): “The GOP convention that
booed Mike Leavitt and Orrin Hatch will chase Romney, who flirted with
pro-choice abortion politics in Massachusetts, right of town. The GOP
purists see abortion as an absolute litmus test, and death-bed repentance
won’t help Romney. So he ought to consider running as a Democrat, where
he would find much ideological agreement. He could keep the seat warm for
Jim Matheson, who needs a few more years in Congress representing the now
16-county 2nd District before claiming the governorship. At
the least, Romney should run as an independent to avoid having to grovel
before the far right.” (12/01)
- The Deseret News (Utah): “But a number of
home-grown Republicans are awaiting and Romney would be considered a
moderate Republican by Utah standards. He clearly is aware of political
future here, however, vehemently denying press reports last year that he
was pro-choice on abortion during his 1994 U.S. Senate campaign.” (02/02)
- Boston Globe: “Democratic candidates and Swift could
seize on what appears to be a shift in Romney’s state position on
abortion. In a letter last year to the Salt Lake Tribune. Romney
backpedaled from what his 1994 Senate campaign aides had described as a
pro-choice rights position.” (02/02)
- Boston Herald: “Swift aids have already raised the
issue of abortion, questioning whether Romney would be committed to
abortion rights. Romney, a Mormon, has said he is personally opposed to
abortion but has accepted the law legalizing it.” (03/02)
- Romney’s web
site in 2002 -
“As Governor, Mitt Romney would protect the current pro-choice status quo in
Massachusetts. No law would change. The choice to have an abortion is a
deeply personal one. Women should be free to choose based on their own
beliefs, not the government’s.”
- “Anti-abortion activists chided Gov. Mitt Romney
yesterday for his new, self-attached “pro-life” label, saying efforts to
appeal to conservatives are in vain because his position mirrors that of
liberal Democrat Sen. John F. Kerry.” The move comes
after years in which Romney sought to avoid being labeled on abortion.
In his 1994 Senate campaign, his spokeswoman called Romney “pro-choice.”
(Boston Herald 2/24/05)
- “Gov. Mitt Romney said he supports state funding for
stem cell research – so long as it does not involve embryonic cloning.
(Boston Herald 3/9/05)
- “The governor, on the issue of stem cell research,
believes that research on embryos derived from the in-vitro fertilization
process, if they would otherwise be discarded, is appropriate.” (Boston
Herald 3/27/05)
- “Romney, who supports stem cell research, but not
the procedure allowed under the proposed law, said it was unnecessary for
lawmakers to change the definition to human life begins upon “implantation
of the embryo in the uterus.”” (Boston Herald 5/13/05)
- “Understand over time one’s perspective changes
somewhat,” he told USA Today. “I’m in a different place than I was
probably in 1994, when I ran against Ted Kennedy, in my own views on
that.” (Boston Herald 6/3/05)
-
“While
I’ve said time and time I oppose abortion, I did promise in 2002
not to change the abortion laws of Massachusetts, and I have kept that
promise, and I take all the promises I make very seriously,” Romney said
in a prepared statement”… (Boston Herald 6/4/05)
-
Contraception Bill:
Romney cuts summer vacation short to block
legislation that would allow Mass Hospitals to dispense the morning after
pill. (Boston Herald 7/26/05)
- Romney changes his mind on the
exemption for Catholic Hospitals not being required to provide emergency
contraception medication to rape victims. (Boston Herald 12/9/05)
-
“At a
campaign appearance at Brandeis University in June 2002, Romney
strongly endorsed stem cell research.”
… “But on Feb. 10, 2005, three months after his meeting with
Melton, Romney came out strongly against the cloning technique,”( Boston
Globe 12/17/06)
- “He also said that the nation’s
laws should be changed to reflect that abortion is wrong.” (Boston Globe
12/22/05
- “I spent a lot of time talking
with people scientific in background as well as religious and spent a lot
of time understanding when it was that as a society we needed to respect
human life and came to the conclusion that it’s time to be very clear on
that, that when conception occurs that human life has begun.” …. “And
therefore, I indicated I am pro-life and will respect the rights of human
life.” (Fox News 2/27/06)
- “If Gov. Romney were the
Governor of South Dakota he would sign it,” Teer told political newsletter
The Hotline yesterday. “The governor believes that states should have the
right to be pro-life if that is the will of the people.” (Boston Herald
3/1/06)
-
“In the
2002 campaign, Romney said “yes” on a NARAL survey to this question: “Do
you support comprehensive, age-appropriate family life/sexuality education
in the public schools, and oppose ‘abstinence-only’ sexuality programs?”
“But earlier this year, Romney’s administration, using a federal
grant, contracted with a program called Healthy Futures to provide
abstinence-only education for 12- to 14-years-olds, primarily in Hispanic
and black communities.” (Boston Globe 12/17/06)
- “Romney was pelted with hard
questions on abortion in South Carolina earlier this week after Planned
Parenthood officials released a 2002 questionnaire in which he said he
supported Roe vs. Wade and Medicaid funding for abortions. Ina similar
2002 survey by the National Abortions Rights Action League, Romney said:
“I respect and will protect a woman’s right to choose.” (Boston Herald
2/1/07)
The
Republican National Coalition for Life has recently issued a
report
(DOC) related to
Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney and his pro-life position.
Additional information will be posted to this chronology as it occurs. |
