Mitt Romney never became pro-life, and Reagan was never pro-abortion.
The Bill that Reagan signed was an honest health of the mother bill that required that she receive permission from a board of doctors. the difference of almost half a century from today, is that in 1967 "health of the mother" was real, and credible, it was not used as it is today, today it has no meaning at all.
Reagan may not have meant it to be abortion on demand, but it pretty much worked out that way, didn’t it? Nobody could see where the mental health of the mother exception would go? I think that is disingenuous. It did not even take very long to happen. Legal abortions went from around 500 in California in 1967 to an average of over 100,000 a year for the rest of his time in office because of that law. Judging solely by his actions, Governor Reagan was a pro gun control politician who signed a law that vastly liberalized abortion in his state. He signed amnesty for illegal aliens while he was president along with more gun control at the federal level. He was pro gun control to the end. He really did sign those laws. Any candidate who did the exact same things would be called a RINO today regardless of what else he did, and rightly so in my view. I thought this thread is supposed to be about where Reagan would be in the conservative spectrum today? I would put him close to Romney, but that is just me. I read somewhere that Reagan later regretted signing that abortion law. That sounds to me like he changed his mind about it, so it does not seem like a lie to me to say he changed his mind about it later.