Romney's abortion etch-a-sketch

[Nova Land]

There was a good article by William Saletan earlier this year about Mitt Romney's changing stories about what he believes about abortion and how he came to those beliefs. It's obvious Romney's position on abortion has changed over the years. But as Saletan points out, it's one thing to change your position, it's another thing to change your story.

To understand Mitt Romney, you have to understand the most difficult passage of his political life: how he changed his position on abortion. Not the story he tells about it, but the real story.

Romney began his political career as a pro-choicer. In the story he tells, he had an epiphany, a flash of insight, and committed himself thereafter to protecting life. But that isn’t what happened...

Parts of the story have been told before. But no one has put it together. And no one has assembled the many video and audio clips that bear witness to what happened. In this article, the first complete examination of Romney’s journey, you’ll see his transformation on camera...

... The problem with Romney isn’t that he keeps changing his mind. The problem is that he keeps changing his story.

I'm sorry I don't have time to provide a transcript or careful summary of what Saletan reports. But here's a quick oversimplification from memory. Apologies for any careless errors.

Early in his career Romney Romney was pro-choice, and explained that this was because a relative had died from an illegal abortion and that this had made a lasting impression on him. He and Ann were supporters of, and donors to, Planned Parenthood.

Later in his career, he claimed never to have been pro-choice. He said he had taken actions that could be seen as pro-choice because he'd never really thought about the matter.

He also claimed thatwhile governor he'd had a pro-life epiphany during a conversation about embryos and had done everything in his power since to support the pro-life side.

Saletan has a good video with clips of Romney's stories, in his own words, from various speeches over the year. It won't play on the library computer I'm typing this from, and I don't have time to listen to it again even if it did, but I listened to it several weeks ago and was impressed by it. Perhaps someone else who has time would be willing to listen and transcribe/summarise the key content.

I believe the conflicting stories he has told, and the way those stories conflict with the historical record of his actions, are yet another example of Romney's basic dishonesty. This is not intended as a thread discussing the right or wrong of abortion, and I'd like to request that those interested in arguing the rights and wrongs of abortion to please start a separate thread. What I'm interested in discussing in this thread is (a) what is it that Romney believes about abortion and (b) has he told the truth about what he believes.

I think, based on the record Saletan presents, that he hasn't. But I have not had time to track down the speeches Saletan is quoting to see whether these are fair excerpts. Nor will I have such this month. But I look forward to seeing what others think of the material presents.

[Apologies, this is a post-and-run thread. It will likely be a week before I'm able to go online again and see what comments if any people have made, and likely longer than that before I'll have time to take part in this discussion.]

 

[BenBurch]

Good post Nova Land

 

[Nova Land]

Nearly forgot!

Here's an interesting analysis of Romney's position on abortion from the anti-abortion group American Right to Life.

In general I do not think ARL is very capable analyzing things fairly or well, and my impression is that this is not a very fair analysis. But what I find amazing about it is that they are so disgusted with what they perceive as Romney's dishonesty that they tacitly endorse Barack Obama's re-election by urging voters (in bold red letters!) not to vote for Romney, in these banner headlines spread throughout the article:

If you fear Obama, you'll vote for Romney. If you fear God, you won't...

Obama is the lesser of two evils...

In-san-i-ty: When you support a Republican who has done what you fear Obama might do.

Obama is Romney-lite.

Strategists say that independents decide elections, so the only way for pro-lifers to get candidates who won't kill kids is to become independent.

That's all I have time to excerpt and quote here. But the bulk of the article is their take on Romney's changing stories about what he believes.