Before he shifted his position to run for the Republican presidential nomination, Mitt Romney had always been pro-choice — right?
Apparently not. According to an article by Sheryl Gay Stolberg in Sunday’s New York Times, Romney’s shifts on the abortion issue go back even further. Before embracing a pro-choice position in the mid-90s, Romney, as a leader in the Mormon Church, was fiercely pro-life. He once even urged a pregnant mother of four to carry a life-threatening pregnancy to term.
So when did Romney flip on the issue? When he first ran for office in Massachusetts, during his 1994 Senate race against Ted Kennedy. He also held the pro-choice position during his run for, and tenure as, governor.
So it turns out the common narrative is a bit off: Romney’s run for president didn’t drive him to abandon the “true” pro-choice position he held as a blue state politician. Instead we see a man who modified his pro-life position to become that blue state politician. And now, perhaps, he’s back to where he really stands.
