If elected Romney plans to attempt to over turn Roe v. Wade. With 4 of the 9 Supreme Court Justices being over 70 yrs old, it looks like the next president will get a chance to appoint a few Justices, giving them a huge advantage in swaying the Court either in favor of or against abortion rights.
Romney has stated that he wants to make abortion rights a state issue, rather than a national one. The Center for Reproductive Rights states that if made a state issue, at least 30 states will make abortion illegal (The New York Times).
On a side note, the New York Times article mentioned that when first running to be a Senator for Massachusetts in 1994, Romney told voters about a close female relative who had died because of complications from an illegal abortion in order to call attention to his support of Roe v. Wade. Also, during Romney's successful campaign for governor of Massachusetts in 2002, Romney stated that he planned to uphold the state's pro-choice abortion laws. For more information on the family member and Romney's changing opinion you can check out this article.
2 comments:
I'm very confused as to why Romney has switched positions on abortion. According to the attached article, Romney stated very clearly that he would not push his personal beliefs on to others. Yet, his personal belief of pro-life would be forced on Americans if he became President and overturned Roe v. Wade. I also disagree with his pro-life stance, especially since his relative's death was during the time that abortion was illegal. If abortion was legal during that time, then his relative may not have had to seek an illegal abortion. Making abortion illegal won't stop the deaths of mothers; it could potentially increase since more women would resort to dangerous and life-threatening ways of abortion.
I agree with Grace, and yet this is not the only social issue that Romney has "flipped" on. Despite his pledge to cut funding for Planned Parenthood, which provides contraceptives to many women in the United States, Romney seems to have "softened" his position in the debate, saying that he believes every woman should have access to contraceptives. Either Romney is simply ignorant to the implications of cutting funding to Planned Parenthood, or his rhetoric is intentionally disingenuous in an attempt to not alienate a large constituent of the electorate—women. Either way, as a woman, what he has said in the debate so far has both frustrated and concerned me. I sincerely hope that his anecdote—although positive—regarding the female members in his previous state cabinet fools no one. Anecdotes are not evidence, and although his hair is, indeed, perfectly coifed, Romney's policies (or lack thereof?) are far from charming.
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