RealTime: Mitt’s Flip-Flopping on Abortion

Mitt Romney shares his shiny, yet perhaps deceptive anti-choice vision in his new mailer.

Mitt Romney's slick new direct mailers making their way into the mailboxes of anti-choice South Carolina voters are filled with just what you'd expect from a candidate who has, well, "struggled" with the sincerity of his position on reproductive rights this election season.

The new mailers, according to Talking Points Memo, ‘proclaim that Romney is "the only major Presidential candidate who supports the Republican Party's pro-life platform: A Constitutional amendment banning abortion nationwide."' As TPM rightly points out, Mike Huckabee clearly also supports such an amendment.

According to NARAL Pro-Choice America, Huckabee is in favor of "a constitutional amendment written specifically to protect the right to human life."

Mitt's colorful mailer is story-book titled, "The Governor Who Sided With Life…Every Single Time." Siding with life every time, as Romney perceives it, means "pushing abstinence-only education in the classroom" (I challenge you to explain to me what "siding with life" means in the context of abstinence-only education )and "vetoing legislation that would have provided for the morning-after pill without a prescription…"

Is this a new campaign tactic for Romney? Jonathon Martin also points out that another of Mitt's recent mailers conveniently lists him as the "only Republican candidate who supports a ban on gay marriage." But Huckabee, again, also holds this stance. Not so coincidently, Huckabee has gained traction in the polls recently.

The mailer makes a strong statement against abortion rights for a candidate who is being derided by a group from his own party, Republican Majority for Choice. They recently launched a new ad campaign in Iowa and New Hampshire detailing Romney's "flip-flopping" on the issue. The 30-second television commercial will run in Iowa and New Hampshire on every major network (ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox) as well as the New England Cable Network in New Hampshire.

The group was actually approached by Romney in 2002 for their endorsement, according to the Washington Post:

"It's an issue about trust. We believe candidates running for the highest office in our land should be capable of trust," said Jennifer Blei Stockman, the group's national co-chair, adding that when it came to the Republican Majority for Choice's 2002 endorsement, "He sought us out. He filled out our questionnaire. He wanted this."

The television ads are essentially a montage of Romney's ever-changing stance on abortion. The GOP group feels betrayed by Romney's no-holds-barred anti-choice stance these days considering his insistence in 2002 that he would "preserve and protect" women's right to an abortion.

“The fact that Mr. Romney flip-flopped on this issue is not new. In fact, Mr. Romney has addressed and confirmed that himself,” said Stockman. “We feel Americans need to know about the pledge he made to us when he ran for Governor of Massachusetts and that he has reneged on the promise he made to our organization. We hope people will take us up on our call to contact Mr. Romney and persuade him to again support the right to choose.”