Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney dodged a few questions from NH Debate moderater George Stephanopoulos about Griswold V. Conneticut, a key Supreme Court decision on the inferred Right to Privacy in the US Constitution. The case came about when Conneticut banned birth control in the state, and was challeged by a married couple in the state. The Court struck down the law as an infringement on the right to privacy between a marial couple.
When Stephanopoulos asked Romney “Do you believe states have the right to ban contraception or is that trumped by a constitutional right to privacy?” Romney sidestepped it by saying no state wants to do it. “George, this is an unusual topic that you’re raising. States have the right to ban contraception? I can’t imagine a state banning contraception,” Romney said.
Pressed further, Romney didn’t commit to supporting the court’s decision, and said that Roe V. Wade should be overturned.
Update by Benjy Sarlin: Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom also declined to weight in on whether or not the Constitution provides a right to privacy that would prohibit states from banning contraception.
“I think [George Stephanopolous] has a strange obsession with the subject of contraception,” he told reporters. “No candiate on stage has proposed cracking down on contraception, no state is looking at it, the only person for whom it’s an issue is George Stephanopolous, you should ask him about it. ”
