Romney Video Highlights Pro-Life Endorsement, Record

Politics   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Jan 14, 2012   |   6:13PM   |   Washington, DC

The Mitt Romney presidential campaign released a new video today touting a high profile pro-life endorsement the former Massachusetts governor earned and touting his record vetoing two anti-life bills and supporting abstinence education.

“Mitt Romney is supported by pro-life conservatives like Former Ambassador Mary Ann Glendon because he shares their values, displayed pro-life leadership in a politically difficult environment, and worked with members of the pro-life community on important issues,” his campaign said in a statement to LifeNews.

The new web video titled “Shares Our Values” features pro-life Harvard law professor and former Vatican ambassador.

“I’m Mary Ann Glendon and I am a founding member of Women Affirming Life and I have been active in the pro-life movement in Massachusetts and nationally for three decades,” she says in the video. “The pro-life movement is all about changing hearts and minds and it struck me as very unfortunate that Mitt Romney has been criticized by some people for coming to a pro-life position on the basis of information. That’s what the pro-life movement is all about.”

“Governor Romney showed great political courage and expended much of his political capital in supporting pro-life measures when he was here in Massachusetts. It was a very difficult political environment. 85 percent of the state legislature is Democrat controlled,” Glendon continues.

Glendon talks about the two vetoes Romney issued that particularly please her and pro-life advocates in Massachusetts.

“Governor Romney in that environment vetoed legislation that would have permitted destructive embryonic research; he vetoed legislation that would have permitted the over the counter sale of the morning after pill; he supported abstinence education in the schools,” she said.

The video features text saying “Vetoed – Embryonic-Destructive Research” — referring to the 2005 veto of a bill that would have allowed the cloning of human embryos for research.

“Gov. Mitt Romney vetoed a bill Friday to expand stem cell experiments in Massachusetts because it would allow the cloning of human embryos – a practice he has called morally wrong,” the Associated Press reported at the time. “But he has urged lawmakers to ban cloning, because extracting the stem cells destroys the embryos. He has said that amounts to creating human life only to destroy it.”

Romney wrote in a veto letter then, “It is wrong to allow science to take an assembly line approach to the production of human embryos, the creation of which will be rooted in experimentation and destruction.”

Next, the video features text saying “Vetoed – Morning After Pill Over The Counter” — referring to the July 2005 veto of legislation that would have allowed over the counter sales of the morning after pill, which can possibly cause an abortion in some cases.

Finally, the video features the words “Supported Abstinence Education” — referring to an April 2006 announcement that his administration funded new abstinence education programs.

Glendon closes the video saying, “Governor Romney was a great friend to the pro-life movement in Massachusetts. In a very difficult political environment, when many doors of the State House were closed to us, we always were welcomed by Governor Romney and his staff. He was a great pro-life governor and he will be a great pro-life president.”