I’ve said I suspect that presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s conversion to the pro-life cause came at a mighty convenient time as he was finished with Massachusetts electoral politics and was moving on to the national Republican stage where pro-life plays better.
So am I surprised at the revelation that Romney’s wife donated to Planned Parenthood? Not when you consider that the donation was in 1994 and Romney was very clear about being pro-abortion then. I think charges of hypocrisy related that donation alone are misplaced considering the narrative the Romney campaign has proposed. If the conversion is true, then such a donation is moot.
Still, it also means that Romney may be in the same tradition as the two Presidents named Bush. It has long been speculated based on unverifiable claims that Barbara Bush and Laura Bush are “pro-choice”.
In reality, we do not elect the spouse, we elect the candidate, but can we say that the spouse has no effect on the policy positions of the officeholder?
Ties to Mass. Citizens for Life
Of course, Romney now points out that Ann is one of the leaders of Massachusetts Citizens for Life, the state’s leading pro-life organization. A group which, coincidentally, is giving him a pro-life award at its Mother’s Day dinner this weekend. A group which, coincidentally, received a $15,000 donation from a Romney-controlled foundation last December. A group which used to be quite critical of Romney.
Again, perhaps the pro-life conversion of both Romneys is quite genuine and if that’s true, I give thanks for their change of hearts. But it’s quite another thing to ask me to base a critical vote for president on that promise. Romney would not be the first politician to have a “convenient” conversion when it suited him.
I need him to explain to all of us the details of that conversion. I need to hear from him what was the impetus for such a radical about-face on the most contentious political and social issue of our time.
And I need Mass. Citizens for Life to explain to the rest of us what they apparently see that we don’t and give us some reason to believe that their embrace of the miraculously converted Romneys is anything other than what it appears on the surface. Even they must see that it has the appearance of quid pro quo.
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