In a new interview taped last week and aired on Fox News Sunday today, Mitt Romney expresses a clear pro-life position saying he opposes abortions and is concerned about protecting both mother and child who are adversely affected by them.
“And in regards to the issue of abortion, that is something where men and women have alternative views on that or different views. We look at an issue like that with great seriousness and sobriety and recognize that different people have reached different conclusions,” Romney said during the interview.
“But it’s not just men who think one way, women also in many cases are pro-life. There are two lives at stake: the unborn child and the mom, and I care for both of them,” he said.
Romney said it is inaccurate for the campaign of pro-abortion President Barack Obama to portray him as opposing contraception.
“In regards to contraceptives, of course Republicans and myself in particular recognize that people should have a right to use contraceptives, there’s no validity whatsoever to the Obama effort to try and bring that up,” he said.
Asked about the comments from Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin that sparked a national controversy over abortion and rape and have been condemned even by pro-life advocates as inaccurate on when women can become pregnant following rape, Romney said the remarks were “uninformed, outrageous, offensive” adding, “I think I’ve distanced myself from the thing he said as far as I possibly can.” Democrats have been aggressively trying to link Romney to the comments in an effort to falsely portray his pro-life views as extremist.
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Romney has the support of the pro-life women’s group, Susan B. Anthony List, among other pro-life groups.
“Governor Romney is the committed pro-life candidate in this race,” Susan B. Anthony List president Marjorie Dannenfelser says in a new opinion column at National Review. “That’s not speculation or wishful thinking. Governor Romney has made firm commitments to protect the unborn, their mothers, and pro-life American taxpayers.”
Dannenfelser points out that, last year, Romney submitted a column to the same publication outlining what he would do as president and the pro-life legislative and other commitments he would make.
The SBA List president writes: “In a post on National Review Online last June, Governor Romney committed himself to the pro-life position and called Roe v. Wade “bad law and bad medicine.” He didn’t stop there. Rather than just check the pro-life box, Governor Romney went on to make concrete commitments.”
The commitments include de-funding Planned Parenthood and abortion, stopping promotion of abortion overseas, signing the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act to ban late-term abortions in the nation’s capital, appoint constitutionalist justices to the Supreme Court, and selecting a pro-life vice-presidential running mate.
“Governor Romney has made it clear that he is the pro-life candidate in this race — which is why the SBA List Board of Directors voted unanimously to stand behind him in April. It is the responsibility of all pro-life voters to now unite behind Governor Romney. Together we can put a pro-life leader in the White House,” Dannenfelser said.
