Michele Bachmann, the Minnesota congresswoman who announced her presidential bid on Monday, is hitting Mitt Romney again on his decision to not sign the pro-life pledge the Susan B. Anthony List put forward.
As LifeNews.com reported, the Susan B. Anthony List unveiled the pledge recently and indicated Bachmann, Tim Pawlenty, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul signed it. The pledge has the candidates promising to support only judicial nominees who won’t interpret the Constitution in a way that supports Roe v. Wade, select pro-life Cabinet members on positions affecting abortion policy, supporting legislation to stop taxpayer funding of abortions and Planned Parenthood, and to support a fetal pain bill that would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.
Bachmann previously criticized the former Massachusetts governor for not signing a pro-life presidential pledge in comments following his decision. Her latest remarks on Romney’s decision come in an interview with David Brody of CBN News.
“This last weekend there was a National Right to Life Committee Convention and I had signed, happily, the Susan B. Anthony List pledge regarding being pro-life as president of the United States,” she told Brody. “I had issued a statement saying that I believed that all Republican candidates should sign that statement. Our party platform is pro-life, and I believe that our president also needs to be pro-life.”
Asked about her response to Romney, Bachmann said, “Well, I think particularly now, Governor Romney has stated that he is pro-life, I take him at his word but, he’s had some issues with that in his past, where he has taken various positions. This was a wonderful opportunity to sign the pledge and demonstrate that he’s pro-life. He chose not to. I think that’s troubling and I think that he should have signed the pledge.”
“I think that the voters will have to take a look at this,” Bachmann added in the interview. “I know for me, it’s very troubling. And I called on the Governor to sign the pledge because after all you can get a lot of things wrong; one thing that you cannot get wrong is the issue of life. That is a foundational issue in our nation and I think it’s important that our candidate for the presidency stand for life.”
Romney did not sign the pledge and his officials said it was because he worried the de-funding legislation would also revoke funding for hospitals, though the legislation currently pending in Congress does not do so.
Romney also released a pro-life statement of position at National Review, but Bachmann said originally that it is “distressing” that Romney did not sign the pledge.
The SBA List indicated pro-life businessman Herman Cain and pro-abortion former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson also did not sign the pledge. Cain has released his own statement on why not, saying he can’t advance the pro-life bills de-funding Planned Parenthood as a member of Congress, though he could certainly employ the bully pulpit of the presidency to do so.
