Posted on 06/20/2011 8:42:09 AM PDT by RINOs suck
WASHINGTON, D.C., June 20, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Former Massachusetts governor and leading GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney has refused to sign a pro-life pledge by the Susan B. Anthony (SBA) List, inviting a rash of criticism from more overtly pro-life candidates.
The pledge asked candidates to promise to nominate conservative federal judges and appoint only pro-life persons to “relevant Cabinet and Executive Branch” positions. SBA List also called upon the candidates to promise to advance government-wide Hyde amendment legislation and a federal Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, and to “defund Planned Parenthood and all other contractors and recipients of federal funds with affiliates that perform or fund abortions.”
U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, Speaker Newt Gingrich, Rep. Ron Paul, Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Sen. Rick Santorum all signed the pledge. Romney was one of three GOP candidates who refused to sign the pledge, along with Herman Cain and Gov. Gary Johnson, the latter of which supports unrestricted abortion “until the point of viability.”
Cain, however, said in a statement that he “adamantly support[ed]” the entire pledge except for the notion of “advancing” the Pain-Capable Act, an action he insisted must be performed by Congress.
Romney’s opposition to the pledge ran deeper: the candidate said in a National Review op-ed Saturday that the SBA List’s document “is overly broad and would have unintended consequences.”
While promising to support several pro-life maneuvers from the executive office, such as appointing conservative judges and advancing the Pain-Capable Act, Romney shied away from the strict language regarding funding for abortion-affiliated organizations.
“It is one thing to end federal funding for an organization like Planned Parenthood; it is entirely another to end all federal funding for thousands of hospitals across America,” he stated. The former governor also said the pledge to appoint pro-life Cabinet members “unduly burdens a president’s ability to appoint the most qualified individuals to a broad array” of government positions.
Romney had begun the statement by saying that he is “pro-life and believe[s] that abortion should be limited to only instances of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother,” a view shared by candidate Pawlenty.
The SBA List said Romney’s reasoning “raises more questions than answers,” while other pro-life candidates immediately criticized the former governor’s response, recalling that he espoused broader support for legalized abortion as recently as 2002.
While Romney did support the Congressional effort to defund Planned Parenthood earlier this year, David Daleiden of Live Action noted that the candidate was among the last of several GOP presidential hopefuls to throw in his lot, sending a terse email through a spokesman to National Review instead of responding to SBA List’s candidate inquiry.
Bachmann’s spokeswoman Alice Stewart called the refusal to sign the pledge “distressing.” “The excuses for not signing clearly continue the doubts about his leadership and commitment to ending the practice of abortion – particularly for a candidate who ran as pro-choice for the Senate and Governorship of Massachusetts,” said Stewart, who encouraged Romney to “reconsider his decision.”
Sen. Rick Santorum on Saturday took to National Review to challenge Romney’s statements regarding health care facilities as well as Cabinet member selection. Santorum noted that the pledge only calls for pro-life members for “relevant” positions, not “a broad array of key positions” as Romney stated.
“I would expect a pro-life candidate to agree to such a simple proposition, just as I would expect a pro-business candidate not to appoint a union boss to head the Department of Labor or someone from the Environmental Defense Fund to head the EPA,” he wrote.
“Frontrunner” and Romney are two terms that are mutually exclusive.
Front runner Obama has about the same meaning as front runner Romney. He’s that bad. It does sound like Governor Johnson, whoever that is, is worse... though the governor does at least tell the truth on his position.
Romney is an icky Postmodernist. Moral relativism doesn’t work, Mitt. It destroys cultures who implement it and we are imploding because of it.
Rule of Law...Just Law....Universal Truths....basis of the USA. Morality does belong in our legal system. Holmes and the Postmoderns (progressives, socialists) destroyed the concept of morality. They are evil.
Having said that, this "pledge" is a promise by the candidates to support "fetal pain" legislation that is utterly immoral, and totally unconstitutional.
And even though Cain refused to sign, in his follow up statement he said that he would sign this immoral, unconstitutional legislation.
Seemingly, the Republican Party can't find a single candidate who understands the most fundamental principles that our free republic is premised upon: equal protection and the defense of the God-given, unalienable rights of the people.
STOP with the front runner nonsense.
The only way Romney can be elected President is if he was on the Democrat ticket!!!
Americans that want to save this nation had better wake up!
He could be the front runner if the Democrats figured out a way to get ObaMao to step aside and run Mitt instead. ;->
Sarah Palin is our answer.
No question about that.
The former governor also said the pledge to appoint pro-life Cabinet members “unduly burdens a president’s ability to appoint the most qualified individuals to a broad array” of government positions.
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Yes several of his Mormon buddies in Utah he owes something to are pro-abortion...
She’s no better. She’s pro-choice for states, like Gerald R. Ford, Ron Paul and John Judas McCain.
"I'm shocked and dismayed".
But, but, he's the GOP candidate hand-picked by the NYTs
And most of the Washington, DC Republican establishment whom he and his allies have bought.
And everyone just swoons over Gov Rick Perry, the Bilderberg Approved Candidate?
When will people learn?
http://www.infowars.com/bilderberg-approved-perry-set-to-become-presidential-frontrunner/
“Sarah Palin is our answer.”
Agreed.
Assuming the question was:
“Who is the person with some great potential value for the cause of Freedom, but who is currently instead just causing great confusion amongst even her own?”
How obtuse can a poster be?
Sarah Palin is pro-life!
The overturn of Roe vs. Wade has been the object of conservatism in the abortion arena since 1973.
Leaving abortion to the states via the overturn of Roe would mean less abortions. Less dead babies. Less ruined lives.
All-or-nothing Pharisee and/or liberal troll!
No better? Really?
You're so uptight about purity, you have no capacity to join with a true ally of the pro-life cause. You should be lauding her example, but instead you pick at her like a jaded liberal.
Her giving birth and nurturing Trig has been ten times more of a boost to the pro-life cause than you or Alan Keyes has ever been or ever will do.
She walks the walk, while you just piss and moan about pro-life purity.
You should be ashamed of yourself, yet you seem to have lost the capacity to feel shame.
I'll take that "ten times" and raise you 100,000!
"No person shall be deprived of life without due process of law.""No State shall deprive any person of life without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."
It's ironic, as someone who gave up the formerly grand old party for dead a few years ago now, I'm still defending the Reagan pro-life Republican platform from the mass of Republicans...who don't seem to know or care what it even says or means.
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