Kate O'Beirne of National Review wrote the following. If her facts are wrong, please tell me.
By: Kate O'Beirne National Review
Monday, Jan 29, 2007
"For decades, pro-life activists have been in the business of winning hearts and minds to their cause. Powerful arguments about the humanity of the unborn have moved public opinion, and a pro-life political force has made ambitious politicians feel the heat, whether or not they see the light. Pro-lifers' faith in the power of persuasion has been rewarded, and their political clout increased, by important converts, including Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. Mitt Romney has also changed his position on abortion, but some social conservatives argue that membership in their ranks should be closed to this most recent convert with presidential ambitions.
"In 1967, Gov. Ronald Reagan signed a liberal abortion law, declaring, 'I'm fully sympathetic with attempts to liberalize the outdated abortion law now on the books in California.' Reagan later changed his mind and expressed regret for signing a measure that saw more abortions performed in California than in any other state before Roe v. Wade. He became a committed pro-life politician and backed the first pro-life plank in the Republican platform. George W. Bush ran as a pro-choice politician in his 1978 congressional campaign, but held pro-life views when he ran for the governorship of Texas in 1994. His father too once favored abortion rights, but took a pro-life position in the 1980 presidential campaign.
"When Sam Brownback was running in a GOP congressional primary in 1994, he initially rebuffed a pro-life group's endorsement, according to a recent account in The New Republic. In that article, a former president of Kansans for Life recalls that Brownback was 'unfamiliar with the anti-abortion lexicon' 20 years after Roe v. Wade, and that Brownback described himself as 'more in line with the view of Nancy Kassebaum,' the state's pro-choice junior GOP senator.
... "During his gubernatorial campaign, [Mitt Romney] won the endorsement of the abortion-rights group Republican Majority for Choice. But three years later, the group's co-chairman declared, 'We feel very betrayed.' The reason was that Governor Romney had vetoed a bill that would have allowed access to emergency contraception – the 'morning-after pill' – without a prescription. Romney had also vetoed an embryonic-stem-cell-research bill; and last year his administration issued regulations banning the creation of embryos for research purposes, calling such research 'Orwellian in its scope.'
"In an opinion article that appeared in the Boston Globe, Romney defended his veto of the emergency-contraception bill. He explained, 'The bill does not involve only the prevention of conception: The drug it authorizes would also terminate life after conception.' He faulted the bill for not requiring parental consent before allowing minors access to the pill. And he wrote, 'I understand that my views on laws governing abortion set me in the minority in our Commonwealth. I am pro-life. I believe that abortion is the wrong choice except in cases of incest, rape, and to save the life of the mother.' ...
"Romney has been stating his abortion position with the conviction of a convert, in terms that can appeal to a broad audience. Many social conservatives are persuaded that his conversion is genuine."
About six months ago, I searched old LA Times articles from the 1960s about the legislation Reagan signed. Below are my notes, and some quotes. (somewhat plagiarized--so credit to LAT)
In 1967, a democrat state lawmaker (Beilenson) pushed to liberalize the laws for just three reasons: to allow abortion in the case of rape, incest, or where the baby might be deformed. ...Governor Ronald Reagan's first response was "Here's an emotional problem that has so many facets of consideration. It is not only spiritual, but also legal... when does life begin? What right does the unborn life have? What legal right? I'm not prepared to answer now."
In subsequent statements, Reagan took great exception to the portion of the law addressing the possibilty of deformity. "I am satisfied in my own mind we can morally and logically justify liberalized abortions to protect the health of a mother. I cannot justify the taking of an unborn life simply on the supposition that the baby may be born less than a perfect human being... [this kind of thing] wouldn't be much different from what Hitler tried to do."
The deformity provision was dropped shortly thereafter. The final statute permitted abortions in the case of forcible rape, incest, statutory rape if the victim was under 15 years old or if there was a "substantial risk" that continued pregnancy would "gravely impair" the "physical or mental health" of the mother.
Several months before Reagan signed the final bill, Colorado passed similar legislation (thus, California was not "the first" as some have asserted.)