Romney’s wavering path on abortion. Do voters care?

Abortion is a tricky issue for both Romney and Obama campaigns. In polls, a plurality agrees that abortion should be generally available. But a substantial number want to restrict its availability.

|
Kelley Cox/Glenwood Springs Post Independent/AP
In this March, 2012 photo, supporters from both sides of the abortion issue share the sidewalk next to the Planned Parenthhood clinic in West Glenwood, Colo.

Mitt Romney is having to talk about abortion a lot more than he’d like to these days for one key reason: His history on this important social issue is, shall we say, very mixed.

Also, it’s a wedge issue that’s increasingly important to the Obama campaign, which some polls show is seeing a drop in what had been its clear lead among women voters. As a result, both sides have hustled out new ads on the subject.

A USA Today/Gallup Poll of swing states this week shows why it could be an important issue in the election.

When women were asked to identify the most important issue for them, the top concern by far was abortion, an issue that didn't even register among men, USA Today reported. Nearly four in 10 women cited it, and those who did supported Obama by more than 3-1.

RECOMMENDED: Obama vs. Romney 101: 5 differences on women's issues

Back in 1994 when he was challenging Ted Kennedy for a seat in the US Senate, Romney declared that “abortion should be safe and legal in this country.”

“I believe that since Roe v. Wade has been the law for 20 years, that we should sustain and support it, and I sustain and support that law,” he said then.

Two important things he noted at the time: His position was the same his mother took when she ran unsuccessfully for a US Senate seat in Michigan in 1970. And he wouldn’t let his personal opposition to abortion (tied to his Mormon faith) get in the way of “the right of a woman to make that choice.”

Mr. Romney lost that race, but his position on abortion (in liberal Massachusetts) didn’t change when he ran successfully for governor six years later. “As Governor, Mitt Romney would protect the current pro-choice status quo in Massachusetts,” his platform stated. “No law would change." Note that he wasn’t just acknowledging the Bay State’s pro-choice preference on abortion but vowing to “protect” it.

Three years later, his rhetoric on abortion had changed significantly.

"I am pro-life,” he wrote in a Boston Globe op-ed in 2005.

“I believe that abortion is the wrong choice except in cases of incest, rape, and to save the life of the mother. I wish the people of America agreed, and that the laws of our nation could reflect that view,” he wrote. “But while the nation remains so divided over abortion, I believe that the states, through the democratic process, should determine their own abortion laws and not have them dictated by judicial mandate.”

Today, that last phrase – “dictated by judicial mandate” – is what has abortion rights advocates worried.

Romney was saying that the legality of abortion should be left to the states, implying that Roe v. Wade had been judicial overreach. More recently, Romney’s campaign website calls the 1973 landmark US Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion “a case of blatant judicial activism,” and he promises to “nominate judges who know the difference between personal opinion and the law” – presumably including US Supreme Court justices more in line with his thinking.

Four of the nine Supreme Court justices are in their 70s. They could serve for many more years. But should any of them retire, the next president would nominate their successor. If that’s Mitt Romney, the likelihood of a new direction on federal abortion law is greater. And as Slate’s David Weigel points out, “Overturn Roe, and in a vast swath of the country abortion is illegal, immediately.”

During the Republican primary campaign, Romney told Fox News commentator Mike Huckabee that he “absolutely” supports a Constitutional amendment banning abortion.

As the presidential campaign accelerates toward Election Day Nov. 6, both sides are pushing new TV ads on abortion.

An Obama ad – featuring a snippet from a 2007 Republican primary debate for the 2008 election – warns that Romney wants to ban “all abortions.” A Romney ad has a woman – a former Obama supporter – pointing out that Romney “in fact thinks abortion should be an option in cases of rape, incest, or to save a mother’s life” – the point Romney himself emphasizes in campaign appearances.

Abortion is a tricky issue for both campaigns.

A CBS/New York Times poll last month had a plurality of those surveyed (42 percent) agreeing that abortion should be “generally available.” But a substantial 35 percent said it should be “available under stricter limits” – presumably something closer to Romney’s current position – and 20 percent said abortion “should not be permitted.”

While anti-abortion groups and Romney running mate Rep. Paul Ryan (at least before he joined the ticket) oppose the procedure under any circumstances, Romney’s allowing for some important exceptions appears not to be a political problem for social conservatives.

“We wouldn’t have endorsed him if I didn’t truly believe he’s truly pro-life and has that conviction,” Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the anti-abortion Susan B. Anthony List, told Talking Points Memo.

RECOMMENDED: Obama vs. Romney 101: 5 differences on women's issues

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Romney’s wavering path on abortion. Do voters care?
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/DC-Decoder/2012/1020/Romney-s-wavering-path-on-abortion.-Do-voters-care
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe