“What you got with Reagan was not someone who, after writing a book, Abortion: The Conscience of a Nation in 1984, didn’t slip back (like Romney did) into pro-abortion words & actions.”
In 1984?? Heck, Reagan had run for president twice before 1984, and had been a governor for years before. You don’t know what positions he took, or what statements he made beginning in the late 1960s. Here’s one:
“In May 1967, the Therapeutic Abortion Bill began to take shape. It was a measure to allow pregnant women to terminate embryos prejudicial to their “physical or mental health.” Reagan had to admit that he agreed with “the moral principle of self-defense.” If 100,000 California women were desperate enough to undergo illegal abortions every year, he could at least make it safer for some of them.” - Lol, open it up to “mental health” and you’ve opened it up to any and every whim of a woman who just wants to avoid the inconvenience.
http://www.ontheissues.org/Celeb/Ronald_Reagan_Abortion.htm
Lots of territory you’ve got to cover there from 1967 to 1984. How long did it take Reagan to become pro-life?
You Romney haters really make yourselves look silly smearing Romney for changing positions just as Reagan and umpteen other politicians have done over the years.
And trying spin Reagan’s flip-flops on abortion sounds as silly as trying to spin John Kerry’s flip-flops on Iraq. He was a great president, but he was also human. Not the saint some want to make him out to be.
“Romney’s claim, however, is just patently false. Reagan’s most able biographer, Lou Cannon, has documented* that in contravention to Romney’s claim that Reagan was “adamantly pro-choice” Governor Reagan had never really given the abortion issue much thought before he took office. Cannon demonstrates that when Reagan was first confronted with abortion in 1967 he was unusually indecisive and had a difficult time deciding what he should do with a liberal abortion bill winding its way through the state house in Sacramento.
Cannon documents that after the abortion bill passed the California Senate, Reagan was asked by reporters during a press conference about his stance on the bill. When asked if he would sign the bill, Reagan answered, “I haven’t had time to really sit down and marshal my thoughts on that.” Such a reply certainly does not reveal an “adamant” position on the issue, as Romney claims Reagan held. Further, such indecision was not in any way a hallmark of the Reagan mode of operation.
In fact, Cannon writes that in 1968, the year after the bill passed, Reagan said that “those were awful weeks,” and that he would never have signed the bill if he had “been a more experienced governor.”
In light of the evidence it cannot be said that Reagan was ever an “adamant” pro-abortion supporter who later “grew” into an anti-abortion advocate. For Romney to invoke the spirit of Ronald Reagan in this way is a disgraceful attempt to co-opt the reputation of the most famous and successful politician of his age and an icon of the conservative movement to the aid of a candidate floundering on an issue. Mitt Romney’s abortion problem bears no resemblance at all to Ronald Reagan’s views “grown” or not.”
http://www.theconservativevoice.com/article/27404.html
I never said he turned pro-life in 1984. I said that after he turned pro-life (a position which culminated with that book), he didn't flip back & forth, back & forth (like Romney did).
How long did it take Reagan to become pro-life?
He ran for POTUS on pro-life platforms. (Not sure of his early 70s position).
Reagan’s flip-flops on abortion
Here, let me use the argument so many Romney supporters have tried (since they didn't know Romney actually changed his position more than once): "He didn't flip-flop, he only 'flipped.'"
I defy you to find all the Reagan quotes on abortion, or for that matter, pick out any of the "politicians...over the years": Make a list of their statements on abortion...put them in any order. Then do a "mock" interview of them. They won't even come close to the ridiculous flip-flop, flip-flop, flip-flop statements made by Romney. (What's just about as bad in my opinion is that Romney's 2007 statements consistently shows that he really doesn't know the difference between "pro-life" and "pro-choice." Here ya go! Enjoy the twists & turns...better than any amusement park thriller...well, at least it is until you realized some kids got killed on the Romney Abortion Romp Ride...)
So here's a "mock" "interview" of Mitt--using his own actual words as the substantive part of his "responses" (his actual words are underlined):
Q Mr. Romney, tell us about how you've switched your attitude on abortion.
A "Yes. While I never said I was pro-choice... my position was effectively pro-choice." [Source: 2007 GOP Iowa Straw Poll debate 8/5/2007]
Q So since you're not "effectively pro-choice" anymore, you've changed. But what do you mean, "I never said I was pro-choice?" According to the records, didn't you say in 1994 that Women should be free to choose based on their own beliefs, not mine and not the government's?" [Source: Stephanie Ebbert, "Clarity Sought On Romney's Abortion Stance," The Boston Globe, 7/3/05] Didn't you follow that up 11 years later on May 27, 2005 after your pro-life "conversion" by saying "I am absolutely committed to my promise to maintain the status quo with regards to laws relating to abortion and choice?" Isn't "free to choose" and "promise to maintain...choice" the same thing as "pro-choice?" (Or are you just parsing words?) Didn't you also make multiple 'pro-choice' promises in 2002?"
A "I've made it quite clear since at least the Summer of 2001 that I do not wish to be labeled pro-choice." [Source: Mitt Romney, Letter to the Editor, The Salt Lake Tribune, 7/12/01]
Q "If you didn't want to be labeled as 'pro-choice' as of 2001, then why 'promise to maintain...choice' multiple times in both 2002 & 2005? (I guess I'm a bit befuddled here)"
A "Listen, I never called myself pro-choice. I never allowed myself to use the word pro-choice because I didn't FEEL I was pro-choice. I would protect the law, I said, as it was, but I wasn't pro-choice, and so..." [Source: Mitt Romney, interview with Fox Chris Wallace, Aug. 12, 2007]
Q "...But excuse me, sir, just because you in your internal conversations haven't labeled yourself 'pro-choice' doesn't mean that you haven't spent a dozen-year period between 1994 and 2005 spouting 'pro-choice' expressions. Isn't that so?
A "Listen, I am firmly pro-life… I was always for life." [Source: Jim Davenport, "Romney Affirms Opposition to Abortion," The Associated Press, 2/9/2007]
Q "But we started out this interview where you were totally coming clean on your past years and you said your 'position was effectively pro-choice.' What was your record as governor of Massachusetts, then?"
A "I've been quite forthright on my positions ever since I took the campaign trail in South Carolina in January of 2007. I'll repeat what I said then: 'Over the last multiple years, as you know, I have been effectively pro-choice.'" [Source: Bruce Smith, "Romney Campaigns in SC with Sen. DeMint," The Associated Press, 1/29/07]
Q "So we have established, then, that you were indeed 'pro-choice' over the last multiple years..."
A "...But you didn't let me finish. Eleven days after I made that statement, I also told South Carolina's citizens that 'I am firmly pro-life… I was always for life.'" [Source: Jim Davenport, "Romney Affirms Opposition to Abortion," The Associated Press, 2/9/2007]
Q "OK, I'm getting rather confused again. How can you be 'pro-choice'...over the last multiple years and yet 'always [be] for life?'"
A "Well, that's because of my track record as governor. You see 'As governor, I’ve had several pieces of legislation reach my desk, which would have expanded abortion rights in Massachusetts. Each of those I vetoed. Every action I’ve taken as the governor that relates to the sanctity of human life, I have stood on the side of life.'"
Q "But why did you then tell me that 'Over the last multiple years, as you know, I have been effectively pro-choice?'"
A "Well, some people interpret it that way because of $50 Commonwealth Care abortions and a Planned Parenthood League representative who in now permanently attached to that process."
Q "But you've told me that 'every action' you took 'as the governor that relates to the sanctity of human life' you 'stood on the side of life?'"
A "Uh, excuse me, but my press secretary just handed me a copy of my Katie Couric interview on embryonic stem cell research, and I want to review it...feel free to watch":
COURIC INTERVIEW: "...surplus embryos...Those embryos, I hope, could be available for adoption for people who would like to adopt embryos..."
Q "Wow, Mitt, that's great. I don't think I've ever heard a POTUS candidate ever talk about adopting frozen surplus embryos before. That's great!"
A "Shh. (You'll miss my next sentence)"
COURIC INTERVIEW: "But if a PARENT decides they would want to donate one of those embryos for purposes of research, in my view, that's acceptable. It should not be made against the law." [Dec. 5, 2007 interview with CBS' Katie Couric]
Q "So 'pro-choice' parents--and you admit they are 'parents' of adoptable embryos--if they 'decide' to 'donate' a young one for purposes of dissection...that's 'acceptable?' [More head shaking] And this was the very issue that 'converted' you to the "I was always for life" 'new' position, eh?"