Friday, December 09, 2005

Mitt's One-Day Turnaround on Plan B

Yesterday, the big news was that Governor Mitt Romney wanted to let private and religious hospitals opt out of the new law (passed over his veto) requiring doctors to make the "Plan B" emergency contraception available to rape victims. After all that hokey-pokey, Mitt has turned himself around, and now says that no hospitals are except. Criticism of this shift in position has come, of course, from the state Democrats, but also from the Herald Editorial Page. Here's an excerpt:

It seemed like yet another example of the Republican governor losing out to the Democratic Legislature. That is, until Romney decided religious hospitals could satisfy the new law by simply providing information about the pill -- not the pill itself -- to those seeking treatment.

For the sponsors of the bill and the folks at Planned Parenthood, that view set their hair on fire -- and understandably so. In passing the bill, lawmakers didn't intend to exempt anyone -- in fact, they explicitly rejected a 'conscience' amendment giving religious hospitals an out clause. Trouble is, an existing law says the state can't force private hospitals to perform abortions or provide contraception. That law gave the governor a major loophole to exploit.

But that was Wednesday. By Thursday, Romney said he consulted with his legal counsel (He might have done that a tad earlier!) and concluded that the new law superseded the old one.
What's obvious to everyone by now is that Romney puts his political considerations first, and only after deciding which position would benifit him politically does he bother to see what the law dictates. Wouldn't it be nice if we had a governor who checked with his legal advisors before talking with his political advisors?