it took me a while to find this thread, but it's worth it to point out more flip-flopping
By Scott S. Greenberger, Boston Globe Staff | May 25, 2005
Governor Mitt Romney said this week in a nationally published interview that he is ''in a different place" on abortion than at the time of his first run for public office in Massachusetts, when he pledged to keep abortion ''safe and legal in this country."
His remarks were made during an interview with USA Today, which focused on Romney's unlikely success as a Republican in a Democratic state. But the comments were immediately seen by some close watchers of the abortion debate and presidential politics as a sign that Romney would shift rightward on the issue if he were to seek the GOP nomination for the White House in 2008.
''Understand, over time one's perspective changes somewhat," Romney 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." The governor declined to elaborate.
Yesterday Julie Teer, the governor's spokeswoman, refused to explain how Romney's position has changed, saying only that it has ''evolved over time." Teer emphasized, however, that his ''commitment to the people of Massachusetts to maintain the status quo while he is governor has not changed."
Tacking to the right on abortion would make Romney more appealing to socially conservative voters in presidential primaries outside Massachusetts, but it would not play as well with the Bay State's liberal and moderate voters if he ran for governor again. Romney is expected to announce his intentions this fall.
When Romney was wooing Massachusetts voters in 2002, he said he supported Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, and promised not to change the state's abortion policies. He espoused the same position during his 1994 US Senate campaign against Kennedy.
''I believe that abortion should be safe and legal in this country," Romney said in an October 1994 debate against Kennedy. ''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."
In recent months, however, Romney has played up his personal opposition to abortion in out-of-state speeches; removed a reference to Roe before signing an annual proclamation celebrating access to birth control; tried to promote the teaching of abstinence to students; and declined to publicly back a measure expanding access to emergency contraception, even though he said he supported that goal during the 2002 campaign. He has said he will examine the proposal if it reaches his desk.
Massachusetts Citizens for Life says it considers Romney to be an abortion-rights supporter, and it is unimpressed with those moves. Romney spokesman, Eric Fehrnstrom, has repeatedly said that Romney's core positions -- personally anti-abortion, pro-parental consent, and in favor of a ban on what opponents call ''partial birth" abortion -- haven't changed.
But abortion-rights supporters detect a shift.
''Those of us who care for reproductive choice and freedom are concerned," said Melissa Kogut, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts. ''At a time when we need to be working together to reduce the rate of unintended pregnancy, the status quo is not good enough."
Angus McQuilken, public affairs director for the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts, said, ''It's just not credible to have one set of values when it comes to Massachusetts and another set of values when you decide you're going to present yourself to the voters nationally."
''We're very concerned with Governor Romney's shift to the right on reproductive health issues," McQuilken said. ''He made a number of commitments during his campaign for governor that he's frankly not keeping."
If Romney is preparing to change his abortion stance for a presidential run, he would be in good company: Ronald Reagan signed abortion-rights legislation as governor of California, and George H.W. Bush ran as a pro-abortion rights candidate in 1980. Both Reagan and Bush changed their minds and were solidly anti-abortion by the time they ran successfully for president in 1980 and 1988, respectively.
Some anti-abortion Republicans may give Romney some leeway, considering the political climate in Massachusetts. Before Romney went to Michigan to deliver a speech last March, a group in that state blasted him as a ''pro-abortion, pro-gay rights" liberal whose views were ''largely indistinguishable" from those of Kennedy and Senator John F. Kerry. However, the state legislators who attended the speech said they appreciated the political realities in Romney's home state.
But Tom McClusky of the Family Research Council said Romney will face a tough road if he runs for president in 2008. McClusky said that abortion is a more polarizing issue than it was in 1980 or 1988, and that Romney ''is going to have to do a lot more convincing" if he hopes to win the votes of social conservatives.
''For a lot of people, especially Christian conservatives, it's one of those black and white issues," McClusky said. ''You're either pro-life or not. That's the trouble with Governor Romney -- he's gray."