Mitt Romney’s sister, Jane Romney, probably didn’t do him any favors with values voters with her comments on abortion today. But give her credit for being one of the few campaign surrogates to speak about this issue honestly.
Republican leadership and the Romney campaign know a Romney administration isn’t going to be able to outlaw abortion even if it wanted to. But instead of just saying it outright, they usually just hem and haw around the issue (h/t Politico):
Mitt Romney’s eldest sister, who has backed prominent Democrats for office and is Tampa showing support for her brother, had some reassuring words Wednesday for women concerned about the Republican Party’s hard line on abortion.
“He’s not going to be touching any of that,” she said. “It’s not his focus.”
Democratic warnings that abortion rights are under threat are an ungrounded fear tactic, Jane Romney said. “That’s what women are afraid of, but that’s conjured,” she said. “Personally, I don’t think abortion should be used as a football in the political arena.” …
A ban on abortion is “never going to happen” under a Romney administration, Jane Romney said. “Women would take to the streets. Women fought for our choice, we’re not going to go back.”
Republicans and Democrats are both equally to blame when it comes to misleading their bases on this issue. The Democrats pretend that a Romney victory would mean the end of legal abortion in America, and Republican leaders pretends that this notion isn’t completely insane. If a Bush-Cheney administration (and Republican-majority congress/conservative-majority Supreme Court) didn’t ban abortion, what are the chances a Romney-Ryan administration would?
Jane Romney is right, it’s not going to happen.
nWhile I am not a fan of abortion – seriously I can’t believe there are people that think Romney would be able to do this – we’re not talking about Obama who just dis-regards laws that are on the book. It would be very hard to convince the Supreme Court to overturn Roe vs. Wade there would hve to be two or three conservative judges appointed and the Republicans wouldn’t be able to get enough votes probably to come up with a new law.
So why do the REPUBLICANS keep hammering it that he is anti-abortion? Now THAT'S demagoguery. To spout a lie just to keep the ignorant masses on your side. Romney to the idiots: I will ban abortion! Romney to the intellectuals: Of course I won't. Just ask my sister. nTrump, another demagogue: even though I do not believe it for 1 second, I will PRETEND to believe Obama was born elsewhere.
No GOP president is going to "ban" abortion. A constitutional amendment would never get past congress (even if it did, it would never get past the states). The only thing Romney could do would be to appoint SCOTUS justices who overturn Roe, but even that would just allow the states to decide. And I doubt Roe ever will be overturned anyway (just look at Justice Roberts).
Killer Paisley I think most of us understand that but the democrats are counting on less/ill informed people to believe their spin.
How, precisely, can President Romney, or any President, "ban" abortion? Aside from all the Supreme Court precedents that would come into effect, the President lacks legislative power. And assuming that a future Supreme Court overturns Roe, all that does is return the issue of abortion to the states, where it always belonged.
No president can unilaterally ban abortion, but any ptresident can limit abortion by using his Executive powers to make it very difficult to get rid of an unwanted child. n nMitt Romney will be judged by what he does to limit abortion.
Fear tactic for the mass of ignorants. nHopefully he will limit 3rs trimester Ab. An abomination in the vast majority of the cases.