2006 – Present. Romney develops a “states rights” position on abortion. In Romney’s words: “My hope is that the Supreme Court will give to the states over time or give to the states soon or give to the states their own ability to make their own decisions with regard to their own abortion law.” He is opposed to a “single federal rule” and thus opposed to a Human Life Amendment to the Constitution. If one believes abortion is murder, why would you allow states to decide whether or not to legalize murder? However, he also has told some pro-life activists that he now supports a HLA as long as it has exemptions for life of the mother, rape, incest, and embryonic stem-cell research. HLA is opposite of the States Rights approach. Which approach does he favor? It depends to whom Romney is talking. (8)
2006. Romney introduced RomneyCare, which dramatically increased state-funded abortions. As Governor, Romney signed into law a government-controlled health care behemoth into which all citizens are mandated to pay. The program covers abortion and makes it much easier for people to obtain state-funded abortions for as low as $50. The Romney team claims that the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled in 1981 and 1997 “that the state constitution required payment for abortion services for Medicaid-Eligible women.” However, a court ruling is not a law and is not binding unless the legislature codifies it – and there’s no evidence that it did. (9) Moreover, the two court decisions made clear that the state was only to fund “medically necessary” abortions, a phrase not found in the RomneyCare legislation. Indeed, the legislation doesn’t have any restrictions on abortion. One can have an abortion funded by the state for any reason whatsoever. While state funded abortions existed in the past, RomneyCare created a whole new category of people now eligible for abortions. Around 250,000 previously uninsured women are now eligible for state-funded abortions. According to studies, at least 25% of all women each have an abortion at some point, which means 62,500 women previously not covered will likely get abortions compliments of RomneyCare. (10)
Romney also created a permanent position for a Planned Parenthood representative on the MassHealth Policy Payment Advisory Board that governs RomneyCare. No, there are no pro-life representatives involved in any capacity with RomneyCare, nor is there any evidence that Romney or his team fought for legislative language restricting abortion in any way – such as banning third- trimester abortions. However, they did choose to fight with the legislature over certain aspects of dental coverage. More disturbing, Romney also fought to exclude coverage of in-vitro fertilization from the bill. So, at least he is consistently anti-life. (11)