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No, Reagan wasn't a flip-flopper on abortion. That's a widely-believed myth perpetuated by the media, the Dems, and some pro-abortion Republicans. As governor of California, Reagan signed a proposal known as the Beilenson Bill (named after its sponsor in the legislature). At the time, abortion was only legal in California if the life of the mother was in danger. Beilenson claimed there were a few cases per year (as in, one or two) where women bled so badly from problem pregnancies that their health was seriously jeopardized, but their lives weren't literally in danger. He thus pushed through a bill to allow abortions when the woman's health was in danger.

The legislature passed the bill after being assured it would allow a tiny number of rare abortions in legitimate health cases. Even so, Reagan hesitated to sign the bill, but his staff assured him the bill would only allow rare additional abortions, and only in cases where there was a real tragic medical situation. So Reagan signed the bill.

Unfortunately, it was only a year or two later that the courts began moving to the left on abortion (as they are now doing on same-sex “marriage”), searching for any technicality to mandate abortion-on-demand. They took the law Reagan had signed, which permitted abortions for health reasons, and “interpreted” health as meaning everything from a headache to “distress” at being pregnant. Their “interpretation” had the effect of sanctioning abortion-on-demand, something Reagan deeply regretted.

In later years, the media, Dems, and other liberals would sneeringly and falsely accuse Reagan of being an abortion flip-flopper, by asserting that as California governor he had “signed the nation's most liberal abortion law.” They left out that the law was never intended to be liberal at all. Romney, in contrast, has been a true flip-flopper on abortion.