Not satisfied with just spinning his new position on stem cell research, Romney has now started spinning his position on abortion rights. Yesterday's Herald Article on Mitt Romney's abrupt shift to the right had this quote by the chair of the Spartanburg County GOP:
"I had a meeting with him one-on-one and he told me he is definitely pro-life," Rick Beltram said. "He said he is personally against abortion but isn't going out to change the rules - that's a pro-life position."Now, it seems to me that the operative phrase there is "change the rules". What Mr. Beltram doesn't seem to understand is that not trying to change the rules is actually the pro-choice position. It doesn't matter how one feels about abortion personally. I would wager that an overwhelmingly large percentage of Americans are personally against having an abortion, regardless of their interest in stopping others from having the right to have one. In fact, other conservatives have noted that "personally pro-life" is the same view on abortion that one John Kerry claimed to have. I don't think anyone from the Spartanburg, SC Republican party claimed he was pro-life.
For those interested in what Mitt has said about the abortion issue in the past, Ben over at Romney Is A Fraud has a great rundown of the Governor's record and rhetoric on choice.
So, let's review:
He was for stem cell research, but now he's against it. Or rather, he's for research on donated embryoes, as long as you don't clone them so you can actually do research on them.
He was pro-choice, but now he's 'personally pro-life'. Or rather, he's pro-life when it's personally beneficial for him to say he's pro-life.
He's against civil unions, but in favor of voting for civil unions since he doesn't actually have to cast that ballot himself.
He's pro-Massachusetts, except when he's out of state, when (near as I can tell) he's just pro-Romney.
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