Romney evokes Reagan on abortion stance

By: Sarah B. Boxer
Topics: Campaign 2012

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, speaks at a town hall meeting in Kalamazoo, Mich., Friday, Feb. 24, 2012.

(Credit: AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

KALAMAZOO, Mich. - Rolling out a new line of defense of his flip flop on abortion rights, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said Friday that conservative icon Ronald Reagan underwent a similar ideological transformation on the issue.

At a town hall meeting at Western Michigan University, a woman in the audience asked Romney why "we should regard you as a man of high standards and integrity when you have flip flopped on your position regarding the sanctity of life?" Romney replied that Reagan was "pro-choice before he became pro-life," and named other Republican figures who he said had similar experiences on the issue, including former President Ge orge H.W. Bush and the late former Rep. Henry Hyde of Illinois, who went on to become a leader in the effort to stop the expansion of abortion rights in Congress.

"We need people who recognize that pro-life is the way to go, and we're getting more and more people joining our cause as time goes on," Romney said.

Romney also addressed a recurring issue about whether abortions were forced on Catholic hospitals under the health care law he signed as governor of Massachusetts. "A court in our state decided that anyone who was receiving subsidized care was entitled to abortion on a very inexpensive basis. That was decided before our law was passed, that had nothing to do with our law whatsoever," he said.

He said that during his tenure as president, he would stop funding for Planned Parenthood, and took a swipe at rival Rick Santorum, a former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, who he said voted for bills to fund the organization while he was in Congress. "I'm a pro-life person and I'll be a pro-life president," Romney said.

Sarah B. Boxer
Sarah B. Boxer covers politics for CBS News.
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by ricky_paradox February 27, 2012 12:02 AM EST: Amen...jimatmadison..right-on.; Reply to this comment


by ricky_paradox February 26, 2012 11:54 PM EST: Abortion is just a GOP 'DOGWHISTLE',to get the clueless to vote republican. In 2001, they held the congress,senate and white house, and what did they do...'NOTHING.; Reply to this comment

by larissa97 February 26, 2012 12:50 AM EST

Hey Rick,

How does this help the economy or place people in jobs? Just wondering because this? I don't see how cutting Federal Funding to Planned Parenthood is going to help put people in jobs or help hiring or increase really any of those necessary indexes that economists look at.

I do see it as a violation of church and state as in your faith interfering with the medical treatment of others... so butt out.

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by ricky_paradox February 26, 2012 11:59 PM EST: Right now manufactoring is adding jobs at the fastest rate since 1997..

by Lioncity1985 February 25, 2012 10:42 PM EST

"Every Sperm is Sacred
Every Sperm is Great
If a Sperm is Wasted
God becomes IRATE"

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by Tinysteve78 February 26, 2012 1:46 AM EST: Ha! That's great.

by vrobster7 February 25, 2012 9:18 PM EST

Ronald Reagan was a pathetic, negative leader whose resume has been inflated by GOP dreamers.

Reagan certainly was not a success. Average incomes stagnated and tax cuts overwhelmingly favored the uber wealthy. Like George W Bush Jr. who later followed, the Reagan administration did not have the nerve to cut spending enough to compensate for his tax cuts for the wealthy. The result was ballooning deficits, which Republicans ridiculously like to blame on the democrats.

Reagan's admirers talk of a Reagan revolution. Instead there was a Reagan legacy: the closed minds and hard hearts of the neo-conservatives who staffed the administration of George W Bush and now the Boehner Republicans. What Reagan did was to discredit government itself, the only legitimate tool with which democratic societies can tackle their problems.

Reagan's contempt for government has not turned out to be part of the solution. It has been a large part of the problem.

www.commondreams.org/views04/0608-04.htm

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by shredtheevidence February 25, 2012 11:52 PM EST: Reagan also left a tremendous amount of debt, over 1.5trillion and raised taxes 5 of his 8 years. He was hardly a conservative stalwart, and left George Sr. the noose, recall Bush's "No new taxes" BS. Reagan was also a member of the Democratic Party. I wonder if Romney is willing to flip-flop this much.


by larissa97 February 26, 2012 12:58 AM EST: People really do forget what it was like to live in that era. The evil empire nonsense over the soviet union. The conservative nonsense. The AIDS crises and the nightmare in the way it was handled. Nancy Reagan's ridiculous "just say no to drugs" campaign. I never understood how the managed to white wish his entire presidency later. I'm still amazed.


by userjohna February 25, 2012 9:02 PM EST: What is GOP thinking? Cut the federal budget yet a large percentage of EXISTING Kids get government help to eat and medical care. Better increase the budget so more parents that can't afford them can continue to get help. Please explain the logic. Religious or practical?; Reply to this comment

by erpicferl February 25, 2012 8:48 PM EST

if reagan was still alive he'd be dribbling pudding from his chin and watching monkeys doing it on the discovery channel, and not endorsing any of the clowns in the GOP.

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by jimatmadison February 26, 2012 9:41 AM EST: Sounds like his second term.

My grandmother suffered from dementia, so I shouldn't pick on Reagan, but Grandma didn't have her finger next to the Big Red Button.

by erpicferl February 25, 2012 8:39 PM EST

funny how the republicans would rather force a woman to have a baby and be on welfare all her life than to allow her to not have the baby and stay off of welfare.

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by larissa97 February 26, 2012 1:00 AM EST: Oh no. No welfare. Well, unless she's white but then again, republicans don't actually believe that white people use welfare so... it's a mythical beast they have yet to tackle. But noooo, welfare should go away as should food stamps and any aid.


by cdog2200 February 26, 2012 1:28 AM EST: No they want people to be responsible in the first place and recognize that their actions have consequences and that you can't go out and do whatever you and expect that everything is going to be perfect afterwards. Every action has a consequence and people need to take responsibility for those actions. If they would be responsible in the first place then this whole scenario of needing to get on welfare wouldn't exist. That is initial problem. But then they compound it by killing the baby.


by debz150 February 25, 2012 8:07 PM EST: USA women can decide what we want to do with our own bodies when it comes to reproductive health care. I do not need these men to decide what my daughter or I want to do under various circumstances. Get these men out of our bedrooms and if the men get penal aids paid for with healthcare dollars women should have their birth control paid for! Many female medical conditions use birth control to treat. I have a bleeding disorder and needed the hormones when I was young to stop the flow of extreme bleeding; not your business except you are trying to run women's lives! Perhaps we are becoming more like Afganistan instead of them becoming more like the USA!; Reply to this comment

by speakthetrut February 25, 2012 7:11 PM EST

Reagan this; Reagan that.
We had enough of this Reagan baloney.
Got no real material to base yer speech, Mr Romney?

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by jimatmadison February 26, 2012 9:50 AM EST: Reagan was a crappy, mean-spirited elitist who got away with crippling the government and setting up the destruction of America's middle class by being 'affable'.

The vast majority of the financial mess we're in can be traced to the destructive influences of Reaganomics as practiced by Reagan and by both Bushes.

Since 1981, the only time we took a small break from skewing every policy change in favor of the very wealthy and corporations was during Clinton, and in those 8 years, the economy created more jobs than during the 20 years of Reagan and both Bushes.

We MUST get as many Republicans as possible out of both Houses of Congress so we can return America to greatness, and move forward at a brisker pace.