Mitt Romney Interview: Abortion Takes a Human Life, Overturn Roe 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
February 19, 2007
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and GOP presidential candidate, fielded yet another question on the issue of abortion over the weekend. During a lengthy interview with ABC News’ "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" on Sunday, Romney restated his newfound pro-life views.
A former supporter of legalized abortion, Romney has taken a 180 degree turn and now opposes both abortion and embryonic stem cell research.
Asked about his beliefs now, Romney told ABC News that "abortion is taking human life" and discussed how human life begins at conception.
"There’s no question but that human life begins when all the DNA is there necessary for cells to divide and become a human being," he said. "Is it alive? Yes. Is it human? Yes."
"And, therefore, when we abort a fetus, we are taking a life at its infancy, at its very, very beginning roots, and a civilized society, I believe, respects the sanctity of human life," Romney added.
During the interview, he explained that abortion was a topic he has always "spent a lot of time agonizing over."
Romney admitted that he has always been "personally very much pro-life in my own life, my family’s life" but that he didn’t "know what the role of government should be and it’s been something that I’ve given a lot of thought to."
He discuss his oft-mentioned conversion over two years ago during which he realized how abortion led to the devaluation of human life and how embryonic stem cell research was a manifestation of that.
"And at one point, we were talking about this practice, this technique, and one of the individuals said to me, ‘This isn’t really a moral issue,’" Romney explained. "I said, ‘Well, why is that?’ They said, ‘Well, because we destroy the embryo at 14 days.’"
"And in my mind’s eye, I saw rack after rack of little embryos, of nascent humanity and then them being destroyed or killed one after the other," Romney added.
He said from that point on he shifted his view on abortion and wanted to make it clear he was pro-life because of how society began to disavow the sanctity of human life.
Stephanopoulos asked Romney about the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision and the candidate said he favored overturning it.
"[W]e should let each state have its own responsibility for guiding its laws relating to abortion," Romney said. "I’d like to see the Supreme Court allow states to have greater leeway in defining their own laws."
"This is about allowing states to make a decision on an issue of great moral significance to a lot of people and I think, state by state, we should allow a federalist approach as it relates to the issue of abortion," Romney concluded.
