Another Etch-a-Sketch moment for the Romney journey came today in this newly released CBS interview with the Republican presidential nominee (as of now, he’s still a Republican). After being against all forms of abortions during earlier Republican primaries, Mitt Romney has since changed his position by now claiming to support abortions in the case of rape or incest.
Here’s an example.
In his first run for president in 2008, Romney was asked by CNN’s Anderson Cooper if “Roe v. Wade was overturned and Congress passed a ban on abortions, would you sign it?” The question was not a specific question, it did not mention rape or incest, in fact, it was a very general question – would you sign a bill banning abortions, all abortions in general.
“We should overturn Roe v Wade and return these issues to the states. I would welcome a circumstance where there were such a consensus in this country that we say we don’t want to have abortions in this country… at all… period! That would be delightful! I’d be delighted to sign that bill.”
But that was then. This is now.
“My position has been clear throughout this campaign. I’m in favor of abortion being legal in the case of rape and incest, and the health and life of the mother….This is a matter in the courts, it’s been settled for some time in the courts.”
What will Christian Conservatives say when they realized that Mitt Romney invested heavily in a company that disposed of aborted fetuses? They probably wouldn’t say much. For some strange reason, these people in the Republican party who calls themselves “Christians,” have found a way to forget the teachings of their Faith and hold on to their political ideology instead.
And right now, their political ideology revolves around Mitt Romney.
A report highlighted by The Daily Kos referenced another story in Mother Jonesthat looked at some of Mitt Romney’s investment. Mother Jones pointed out that in 1999, Mitt Romney invested $75 million in a company named Stericycle – a medical-waste disposal firm that has been attacked by anti-abortion groups for disposing aborted fetuses collected from family planning clinics.
Spokespeople from Bain Capital – the company founded by Mitt Romney – tried to distance Mr. Romney from the investment. They claim that Mitt Romney had already left Bain when this investment was made. But Mother Jones found reports filed by the Stericycle with the Securities and Exchange Commission that completely contradicted Bain’s claims.
Mother Jones Reports:
Documents filed by Bain and Stericycle with the Securities and Exchange Commission—and obtained by Mother Jones—list Romney as an active participant in the investment. And this deal helped Stericycle, a company with a poor safety record, grow, while yielding tens of millions of dollars in profits for Romney and his partners. The documents—one of which was signed by Romney—also contradict the official account of Romney’s exit from Bain.
Mitt Romney once believed in a woman’s right to choose but for political reasons, he changed and is pro-life. And no matter what a woman decides to do with her body, Romney and Republicans believe they should have the final say and should be allowed to force that woman to do whatever they want her to do.
And now that we’re finding out that Mitt Romney was at the heart of getting rid of fetuses, the Christians in his party are conspicuously quiet!
“It is the view that Christians should vote their values, and this means we should legislate moral evils into oblivion. Thus if we believe life begins at conception, we should vote against abortion! If we believe marriage is between one woman and one man, we should vote against gay marriage! And if we believe in caring for the sick and the poor, we should vote against “Obamacare!” … Wait a minute!”
That is a quote from David J. Dunn, an Orthodox lay theologian who is questioning the apparent hypocrisy being demonstrated by the Christian Republicans in this country. Mr. Dunn wrote a piece in The Huffington Post highlighting three moral issues Christian Republicans base their votes on – Abortions, Gay Marriage and Health care.
“Do you see the political hypocrisy?” Mr. Dunn asks. “The Christian Right votes for candidates who are anti-abortion and anti-gay (at least on paper) because it believes we must pass laws to protect marriage and protect life (at least embryonic life), but it is unwilling to apply the same principle to “Obamacare.” Infants in the womb have a right to life, but apparently adults do not have a right to life-saving medical care.”
He continues;
Opponents of the individual mandate argue that the state cannot force citizens to buy health insurance. That is a violation of our individual rights. But conservative Christians are willing to consider subjecting women to transvaginal ultrasounds before undergoing an abortion. Taxing people without insurance is intrusive, but apparently shoving something up one’s body is not.
Mr. Dunn brought his piece to a rather eye-opening conclusion: “In the Bible, Cain grew jealous of his brother Abel and killed him. This was the first murder. When God asked Cain where Abel was, he feigned ignorance and replied, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Gen. 4:9). Christians who oppose the Affordable Care Act are not murdering Abel, but they are willing to let him die, lest the taxes of others be raised! Apparently Abel must suffer to death so that our individual rights are preserved.”
Mitt Romney Supports Roe V Wade – Roe V Wade is a policy that has governed this country for decades. It gives a woman the ability to choose whether to have an abortion.
No Wait, Mitt Romney wants to overturn Roe V Wade
Mitt Romney actually have multiple positions on this abortion issue. For even more Romney positions on this issue, click here.
Did you know that if you’re a Democrat and you just happen to be black, then you customarily abort your babies? What? You didn’t know this? Well have no fear, we have Newt Gingrich and his supporters to educate us on the things black people do.
This bit of ‘Knowledge’ comes from Rick Tyler, the black people expert who just happens to be in charge of a SuperPAC supporting Newt Gingrich.
TYLER: More people are on food stamps today because of Barack Obama, they fail in the schools, you can ask Al Sharpton, the Democrats have failed in the public schools with the African-Americans, they abort their babies, they’ve done nothing to lift them out of poverty.
98 percent of African-Americans vote Democrat, okay? What have they gotten for it? Poor schools, poor neighborhoods, crime-ridden neighborhoods, a destruction of the family, and the Democrats want to abort their babies. That’s their position. I’m not going to defend that.
Now I was about to tear into this imbecile, but then I found this tid-bit; Rick Tyler is a worm of a human being who will someday see his ugly heart strangle him in the mirror. But looking beyond his disgusting words, what really marks him as the liar he is are his ‘statistics’, which had the word “LIE!” stamped across everything spilling from his smarmy little mouth.
Rick Perry, one of the Republicans trying to win his party’s nomination to run against president Obama in November 2012 has had a change if heart. He once believed that abortions should be allowed in the case of rape and incest, but not anymore.
What caused Perry to change? We’ve come up with two reasons
Voting in the Republican primary starts in a few days, and Perry’s new anti-abortion stance will go a long way in getting a few more Christian conservative gets.
A television show changed his mind.
Tuesday, at the last leg of a four-stop bus trip across southwestern Iowa, Perry was asked a question by a local pastor about his abortion views, noting that the candidate had recently signed a pledge to oppose abortion in every situation and asking whether Perry had changed his mind.
Perry replied that he had. “You’re seeing a transformation,” he said. Recently watching an anti-abortion film had persuaded him to alter his view, he said.
As Herman Cain falls off the leader-board for the Republican nomination, we now turn our attention to the new flavor of the month, Newt Gingrich – a man who has perfected the art of the flip-flop, and who has paved the way for other indecisive Republican “leaders” like Mitt Romney.
One well documented issue that is now causing Gingrich a major headache among his base, is his support for abortion. Of course, he has already flipped on this issue, but this is a vetting process, so let’s take a stroll down memory lane…
TAXPAYER-FUNDED ABORTION
The New York Times on April 10, 1995, reported, “House Speaker Newt Gingrich on Sunday supported the availability of federally financed abortions for poor women who are victims of rape or incest and expressed opposition to organized school prayer, positions that are at odds with many conservatives in his party.”
Also asked that year on CBS’s “Face the Nation” whether he agrees with Republicans who oppose federal abortion payments in cases of rape or incest or to protect the life of the mother, Gingrich answered: “No. First of all, I think you should have funding in the case of rape or incest or life of the mother, which is the first step.”
Later that year, Gingrich urged his colleagues in the U.S. House to accept language in an abortion bill that would not completely ban abortions under federal employee health plans, leaving in place exemptions in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother, the Washington Times reported on Aug. 7, 1995.
TAXPAYER-FUNDED EMBRYONIC STEM CELL RESEARCH
Bill O’Reilly on “The O’Reilly Factor” asked Gingrich on July 19, 2001: “Stem cell research, should President Bush approve some federal funding for that?”
Gingrich answered: “Well, I agree with Senator Bill Frist, as the only medical doctor in the Senate and as a world-class heart surgeon. I think that there are ways to have appreciation for life, to recognize the sanctity of life, but nonetheless to look at fertility clinics where there are cells that are sitting there that are not going to be used to create life. They literally today, they’re unregulated, they can be thrown away. And I think the president, I hope the president, will find a way to agree that there ought to be federally funded research.”
On ABC News’ “This Week” on July 8, 2001, Sam Donaldson asked: “So he should approve stem cell research on embryos?”
Gingrich answered: “On embryonic cells that, that are pre-fetal.”
PARTIAL BIRTH ABORTION
Gingrich helped quash an effort to deny Republican Party funds to candidates who opposed legislation outlawing so-called partial birth abortions, a Jan. 21, 1998, article by the Associated Press said.
The Republican National Committee at its winter meeting that year wanted to deny party campaign funds to Republican candidates who opposed banning most late-term, or partial-birth, abortions.
Gingrich addressed the RNC meeting on Jan. 16, 1998, calling for tolerance of candidates who support partial-birth abortion, saying he would campaign for them: “It’s the voters of America who have a right — in some places they’re going to pick people who are to my right, some places they’re going to pick people who are to my left and in both cases, if they’re the Republican nominee, I am going to actively campaign for them, because when they get to Congress, whether they are a moderate Republican from the northeast, whether they are a very conservative Republican from the south or west, whatever their background.”
With Gingrich leading in the Republican nomination process and about five weeks remaining before primary voters head to the polls, the Gingrich campaign will be in high gear, trying to distance Newt Gingrich ‘Version 2’ from Newt Gingrich1.0.
Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain believes that life begins at conception. He is totally against abortions, no matter how the pregnancy happened. It could be rape or incest, it doesn’t matter. Herman Cain believes that abortion should never, ever be allowed.
Well, except if its his daughter or granddaughter who gets raped, then he believes the decision to get an abortion has to be made by the family and rape victim, and if she decides to get an abortion, well… so be it! That’s her decision.
In an interview with CNN’s Piers Morgan, Cain said, “I believe that life begins at conception. And abortion under no circumstances.” But when Morgan asked if it were his daughter who had gotten raped, Cain changed his no-abortion stance.
So what I’m saying is it ultimately gets down to a choice that family or that mother has to make.
Not me as president, not some politician, not a bureaucrat. It gets down to that family. And whatever they decide, they decide. I shouldn’t have to tell them what decision to make for such a sensitive issue.
Herman Cain just justified the beliefs of pro-choice groups like Planned Parenthood and National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL). But don’t just take my word on it, even Rick Santorum, another Republican candidate for president, who believes that a rape or incest victim must, not should, but must have the child, says;
“Herman Cain said that he believes life begins at conception, but that it’s up to the individual to decide whether or not to terminate that life, and I find it gravely troubling that Herman believes it’s a life, but that he doesn’t consider it a life worth fighting for.”
“You cannot be both personally against abortion while condoning it – you can’t have it both ways. We must defend the defenseless, period!”
A key provision of Rick Perry’s abortion law in Texas got struck down by a federal judge on Tuesday. The law – which would have required a sonogram of the fetus to be done, then an explanation of the results to a woman seeking the abortion – will go into effect on Thursday.
According to U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks, the sonogram provision of the law could still proceed, but requiring the doctor to give a description of the sonogram “compels physicians to advance an ideological agenda with which they may not agree, regardless of any medical necessity and irrespective of whether the pregnant women wish to listen.”
Sparks wrote;
“(It) is difficult to avoid the troubling conclusion the Texas Legislature either wants to permanently brand women who choose to get abortions, or views these certifications as potential evidence to be used against physicians and women,”
Rick Perry, who made this issue a primary part of his 2011 platform, basically proved the Judge’s point that Republicans are expecting doctors to push their ideological agenda when he said in a statement, “every life lost to abortion is a tragedy and today’s ruling is a great disappointment to all Texans who stand in defense of life.”
The New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights sued to get this policy blocked, and expressed their approval with the ruling, calling it a “huge victory for women in Texas and a clear signal to the state Legislature that it went too far when it passed this law.”
Perry and his Republican legislatures already said they will appeal the ruling.
Republicans have used their massive gains in the 2010 midterm elections to implement a lot of bills and legislation against middle class America. And most these bills are directed towards women and against their reproductive rights.
Enter Rick Perry.
What can we look forward to in a Rick Perry America? An article by Amy Bingham of ABC News details some of the more bizarre laws in Perry’s Texas. But one that caught my attention, although I’m really not surprise considering the GOP’s attack on women, is Perry’s abortion law. From Bingham’s article;
[Rick Perry] played an integral role in creating a law that requires women seeking abortions to have a sonogram at least 24 hours prior to the procedure. The bill also requires doctors to describe the fetus, including details about internal organ and limb development. They must also make the image and heart beat available for the woman to see and hear.
Perry, who called the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision a “tragedy,” pushed for the bill to get emergency status so it could be fast-tracked through the state Legislature and not have to wait the requisite 60 days for a vote.
The constitutionality of the bill is currently being reviewed by a federal judge, who is expected to pass down a ruling before Thursday, when the bill is set to take effect.
ThinkProgress came up with this little nugget. The graph below shows one difference between the Health Care plan set forth by Mitt Romney, the man who could be the eventual Republican nominee for the presidency in 2012, and the Affordable Health Care Act signed into law by President Obama. The difference? Romney’s plan provides funds for abortion services and President Obama’s does not.
The little secret Republicans don’t want you to know about.
A Law requiring doctors to take a sonogram of a fetus before performing an abortion, goes into effect as soon as Republican Governor Rick Perry of Texas signs the bill. It passed both the Texas House and Senate, and promise to be one of the most anti-abortion measures yet.
The framer of the bill – a man who could never understand the pain and reasoning behind the decision to have an abortion – Republican Representative Sid Miller from Stephenville, admits to the far-reaching intent of the bill, telling reporters; “this will be one of the strongest pieces of sonogram legislation in the nation.” He also predicted that the bill would “save numerous unborn lives.”
“The bill requires a doctor to conduct a sonogram at least 24 hours before an abortion and to give the woman the opportunity to see the results and hear the heartbeat of the fetus. Though the woman can choose not to view the images and hear the heartbeat, the doctor must describe what the sonogram shows, including the existence of legs, arms and internal organs.”
Opponents of the bill say that this is just another attempt by “get-the-government-out-of-our-lives” Republicans to control the most intimate and personal decision an individual may make.
Other states have already begun or passed similar measures. A recent count reveals that since Republicans took over the House of Representatives in January, Republican controlled states all over this country have engaged on an all out assault against women, bringing some 916 bills against a women’s reproductive rights.
The promise by John Boehner, the Republican House Speaker to make “jobs jobs jobs” their number one priority has fallen on deaf ears, as the conservative ideology of “small government” apparently does not include their control over a woman’s right to choose.
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