Mitt Romney’s Wife Ann Disavows Decade-Old Pro-Abortion Donation 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
August 13, 2007
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Mitt Romney’s wife Ann told a television news program this weekend that she doesn’t remember a Planned Parenthood donation she made 13 years ago. She said she no longer supports abortion and said she joins her husband, Republican presidential candidate Mitt, in taking a pro-life viewpoint.
In May, the Romney presidential campaign disclosed that his wife formerly supported abortion and that the couple donated money to the nation’s leading abortion business.
Romney has come under heavy criticism for flip-flopping on the issue of abortion just a few years ago after campaigning as a pro-abortion candidate in previous elections.
The campaign disclosed that the couple donated $150 to Planned Parenthood in 1994.
Though both Romneys strongly condemned the donation months ago, the campaign of Sam Brownback brought up the contribution in radio ads in recent weeks leading up to Saturday’s straw poll vote.
In an interview with "Fox News Sunday" over the weekend, Ann discussed the old donation once again.
"I don’t even remember writing the check. I know today I wouldn’t write the check. I mean, how do you remember all the checks you’ve written, you know — how many years ago was that?" she explained.
Ann Romney told Fox News that what is important now is that both she and her husband are pro-life and actively promoting the pro-life perspective. She also said that she became pro-life at the same time as Mitt after evaluating the issue of embryonic stem cell research.
"So I’ve had to make a decision, a personal decision, on this, and it came pretty much at the same time with Mitt, with feeling about M.S. and research dollars and everything else, as to the value of life and experimentation on life," Mrs. Romney said.
"And it gave me pause at that time to say whose life is more important, and I had to come out on the side of life when it came for me making a real personal decision about research dollars going to creating new human life for experimentation," she concluded.
Ann Romney suffers from the debilitating disease and her opposition to embryonic stem cell research comes at a time when many disease groups are strongly pushing for it.
Back in May, the former Massachusetts governor said the couple is now firmly pro-life and has given heavily to his state’s leading pro-life group.
Mitt also said he would be president and make abortion policy decisions and the views of his wife didn’t matter.
"Her contributions are for her and not for me, and her positions I do not think are terribly relevant to my campaign," Romney told the Des Moines Register newspaper. "My positions are what I think is relevant for my campaign."
Romney added that he and Ann have donated "generously" to Massachusetts Citizens for Life — to the tune of $15,000 — and that Ann is now a leader in that organization.
Romney spokesman Kevin Madden told the Boston Globe at the time that Ann doesn’t remember if the check she wrote Planned Parenthood was a donation or the admission fee to an event.
"Since it was so long ago, Ann has no information of the circumstances," he said.
He said the check was written from the couple’s joint checking account and signed by Ann Romney and that Mitt had not signed his name to any donation.
The donation came in 1994 as Romney was challenging pro-abortion Sen. Ted Kennedy.
