Romney Shifts Abortion Position

Attempting to defuse a controversy that threatened his claim to Republican conservatism, Governor Mitt Romney acknowledged that his views on abortion had changed during his years of public service, Captain's Quarters (click to read the full post) reports.

At the National Review's Conservative Summit, he gave his explanation of his transformation: "On abortion, I wasn't always a Ronald Reagan conservative," Romney told a gathering of conservatives. "Neither was Ronald Reagan, by the way. But like him, I learned from experience."

During his 2002 campaign for Massachusetts governor, Romney said that while he personally opposed abortion, he would leave the state's abortion laws intact. In his speech Saturday, he said he had had a change of heart after a discussion with a stem cell researcher.

Romney had to come up with an explanation for his change of heart on abortion. Pro-life conservatives would not have trusted Romney with the nomination unless they understood the shift in his position as coming from conviction rather than political expediency. He obviously has worked on this answer for a while; invoking Ronald Reagan provided a nice touch, especially at an event such as the National Review summit.

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