Election 2008 | AP/Boston Globe Examines Romney's views on Abortion Rights
[Aug 15, 2007]

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who is running for the Republican presidential nomination, is "revealing more complex thoughts" on abortion rights that show his current position "defies easy labels," the AP/Boston Globe reports (Johnson, AP/Boston Globe, 8/14).

Romney has acknowledged his position on abortion rights has changed since he first ran for the U.S. Senate in 1994. Romney in 1994 said, "I believe that abortion should be safe and legal in this country," adding, "I believe that since Roe v. Wade has been the law for 20 years, we should sustain and support it." Roe is the 1973 Supreme Court case that effectively barred state abortion bans. When he ran for Massachusetts governor in 2002, Romney promised to "preserve the status quo" on abortion rights in the state and oppose any changes to state laws that restricted or increased access to abortion.

Romney in 2004, while studying human embryonic stem cell research, said he experienced an awakening that led him to believe "the sanctity of life had been cheapened" by the Roe decision (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 7/6). He recently said he wants Roe overturned to allow states to determine their own abortion policies, which he added is preferable to the "one-size-fits-all" federal approach embedded in the decision.

Romney also has said he supports a part of the 2004 Republican Party platform that called for a federal "Human Life Amendment" to the U.S. Constitution that would repeal the Roe decision "with an eye toward banning abortion nationwide," the AP/Globe reports. In addition, he has said he supports federal legislation that would give fetuses equal protection and due process rights under the 14th Amendment. According to the AP/Globe, both proposals would "supersede court or state action," but Romney has said those positions are not a change in his abortion views.

Romney last week in Bettendorf, Iowa, said, "The right course ... and the course that has the greatest prospects of success, is to see a president elected who will appoint strict-constructionist judges who will be inclined to return to the people and their elected representatives and the states the ability to fashion their own laws related to abortion" (AP/Boston Globe, 8/14).