Romney’s Abortion Transformation
I’ve stated before that Mitt Romney’s credibility on the abortion issue isn’t exactly high. Here’s the link to the RomneyCare pdf that casts his credibility into doubt. Look at this section:
Outpatient care
Office visit to your PCP $5
Office visit to a specialist $10
Radiology, imaging (x-rays), lab work $0
Outpatient surgery at a hospital or ambulatory surgery center $50
Abortion $50
During the last debate, Gov. Romney said that he’d made mistakes on the abortion issue but that he’d experienced a transformation before becoming Massachusetts’ governor. We also know that RomneyCare was the last major piece of legislation Romney signed as governor. Considering the $50 co-pay for abortion in RomneyCare, it’s only fair to ask if this transformation really happened and, if it happened, when it happened.
It’s sounding more like Gov. Romney’s transformation is an election scheme than true transformation. What this means is that mitt Romney isn’t being honest with the American people.
This renders his ‘Mormon speech’ irrelevant. Frankly, I’ve never cared about his religious beliefs. What’s worried me, though, is his honesty. If he can’t tell the truth about this issue, then his credibility doesn’t exist. I won’t say that he’s got less credibility than Hillary but I won’t say he’s got alot more credibility than her, either.
If Gov. Romney doesn’t want to get ambushed by this, he’d better come clean on this ASAP. If he doesn’t, rest assured that Team Hillary will expose it in the general election.
If Romney’s signing socialized health care isn’t bad enough, his lying about his abortion views make things that much worse.
UPDATE: I just got an email from Stephen Smith of the Romney campaign. He’s provided me with an explanation on including abortion in the health care plan. Here’s the information that he provided me:
I wanted you to know that the Commonwealth Care benefit services package was developed by the Connector Authority, an independent authority separate from the
Governor’s office.
- The Commonwealth Care Package Is Designed And Administered By The
Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector Authority. “The Connector administers two separate programs; Commonwealth Care and Commonwealth Choice. Commonwealth Care offers subsidized insurance to people whose annual incomes are up to 300% or the Federal Poverty level.” (Commonwealth Connector Official Website, www.mass.gov, Accessed 2/5/07)- The Commonwealth Heath Insurance Connector Authority Is An Independent Public Authority And Their Decisions Were Made Separate Of The Romney
Administration. “The Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector Authority is an independent public authority created to implement significant portions of the new landmark health care reform legislation. The Connector assists qualified Massachusetts adult residents with the purchase of affordable health care coverage if they don’t already have it.” (Commonwealth Connector Official Website, www.mass.gov, Accessed 2/5/07)And, under Massachusetts law and court precedent, if the state is funding health care benefits, as it is with the subsidized Commonwealth Care products, it cannot refuse to fund abortions.
In 1981, The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Ruled That The
Massachusetts Constitution Required Payment For Abortions For Medicaid-Eligible Women. (Moe v. Secretary of Admin & Finance, 1981)According To The Decision, When A State Subsidizes Medical Care, It Cannot Infringe On “The Exercise Of A Fundamental Right” Which The Court Interpreted As Access To Medically Necessary Abortion Services. (Moe v. Secretary of Admin & Finance, 1981)
In 1997, The Supreme Judicial Court Reaffirmed Its Position That A State-Subsidized Plan Must Offer “Medically Necessary Abortions.” In Moe, “[W]e concluded that the State’s failure to fund medically necessary abortions, while funding all other medically necessary procedures (including services in connection with childbirth), invaded a woman’s constitutional right of choice to a degree that was not counterbalanced by the State’s interest in the preservation of potential life.” (Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts, Inc. v. Attorney General, 1997)
So, the inclusion of funding for abortion in the Commonwealth Care benefit services package is an unfortunate consequence of long-standing Massachusetts mandate. It isn’t the excuse to question Governor Romney’s convictions on life that our opponents might claim it is.
I appreciate the Romney campaign supplying this information. They should be commended for that. That said, it’s still a troubling decision considering the fact that Gov. Romney chose to sign a health care plan rather than vetoing it.
It isn’t a stretch to think that Gov. Romney wouldn’t have had this problem had he gotten behind a market-based health care system rather than a state-run health care system.
Technorati Tags: Mitt Romney, Abortion, Health Care, Flip-Flop, Team Hillary, Hugh Hewitt, Election 2008
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog
December 10th, 2007 at 7:49 pm
“Frankly, I’ve never cared about his religious beliefs.”
Frankly, the only time I would care is if he was a muslim or satanist. Other than that, I’ll look at what the man does, not says.
And I personally think Romney is honest as the day is long - on December 22, above the Arctic Circle. I wouldn’t trust the guy to tell me what he really believes about anything (including his religion) if his life depended on it. But then, he (like all the other jackass-wannabees) is a politician.
December 11th, 2007 at 3:50 pm
I am sick to the point of disgust with conservatives who want to beat the abortion drum concerning Mitt Romney. I want to make 2 very important points.
First, anyone who believes that a Mormon would actively support abortion is nuts. Pure and simple. The LDS faith believes that we were with the Heavenly Father before conception and that we return to his embrace upon death. Children are precious, not to be discarded in the abortionist’s trash can.
Second, and even more important. Many of us who came of age at the time Romney did, and I am very close to his age, did not see the abortion issue as that big a deal. Back in the ’70s, when abortion became the law of the land, most of us were already married and didn’t really pay that much attention. It wasn’t something that hit us in the face in our own daily lives. We had been spoon fed the backroom abortion line, even through our teenage years or we knew of someone who disappeared for awhile because of an unwed pregnancy and then appeared again with their reputation in tatters. And absolutely no one saw what was coming.
We never ever thought that the few abortions that needed to be performed to save a life and should not be criminalized would turn into over 40+ million lives being snuffed out in the womb. We never once anticipated that abortion would turn out to be a convenient form of birth control. And we never ever considered that a married woman would elect to kill her own flesh and blood unborn baby because it wasn’t convenient, or because she didn’t want stretch marks, or because she already had her 2 children and didn’t want to start over with babysitters.
I was one of those who shrugged my shoulders and didn’t give it much thought beyond those backroom horror stories of rusty coat hangers and women bleeding to death. Not until my own daughter was a teenager and together we attended a seminar where the latest technology was on display in the form of a film clip showing the baby in the womb and the development over the course of 9 months did I come away knowing that I had to rethink my view. And when I saw a follow-up film clip of how abortions are performed, with tiny little bodies being torn limb from limb and saline injections to the brain, did I know that I had to take a strong stance.
Like Romney, I changed. I had always known that abortion wasn’t a choice I would make, but it wasn’t until 1987 that I formulated my final opinion that I was for free choice and that choice was for life except in the real cases of life of the mother and some very very limited case by case decisions concerning incest.
Romney has said time and time again that he had only his experience with a family member having a botched backroom abortion to influence him until he faced a situation where he had to rethink abortion and formulate a true opinion. Like myself, when he did have his epiphany, he became a strong pro-lifer, which is in line with his religious beliefs as well.
So, this constant questioning is tacky and, in my opinion, is nothing more than an attempt to hide an underlying bigotry toward Romney so prevalent in the evangelical community.
Do you really believe that Romney would appoint a pro-choice judge? I doubt you do. He has already proven that he is on the same page with embryonic stem cell research, although that point is just about rendered moot with the two new breakthroughs announced in the last month concerning stem cells from skin that have yielded such breathtaking successes, already finding a way to cure Sickle Cell anemia using this technique.
Question Romney on his policies, but this issue is a media/dem driven issue that has hoodwinked evangelicals into believing it is a valid issue. Don’t you guys get it? Wake up. Mitt Romney is probably the LEAST likely candidate at this point to cave on the right to life issue, to think otherwise suggests a different agenda using this issue as a red herring.
December 11th, 2007 at 6:31 pm
Excuse me, ma’am. As long as he doesn’t belong to some religion that actively promotes the destruction and subjugation of the United States, I don’t care if he worships cows.
But it doesn’t matter what he says he believes, what matters is his public record. Seems to me you folks are real sensitive about those you call your own, even to the point of ignoring what a man has done in public, on record.
His speech was full of platitudes about religious freedoms and such, but his public record says he favors more federal guvmint involvement in my life. Good on his platitudes. Based upon his record and the fact he’s a died-in-the-wool politician, I still wouldn’t trust him to tell me it’s raining in a typhoon.
March 19th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts… perhaps the fear of a loss of power.
April 11th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
Very good website you have here.
June 3rd, 2008 at 1:37 am
Thank you very much.
July 5th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
(-_-”)
July 18th, 2008 at 9:21 am
(^_^)
July 29th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
(O,o)