Mitt Romney, Stuck Between A Stem Cell And An Embryo
Posted by Mike Gehrke on June 15, 2007 at 03:10 PM
From the NY Times:
But in a little-noticed moment at the first Republican presidential debate, last month in California, Mr. Romney was asked whether he would encourage broader federal financing. When he did not directly answer that question, he was pressed on whether scientists should be able to do research at all on embryos that fertility clinics would otherwise discard anyway.Mr. Romney said he would be “happy to allow that,” then stopped himself and said: “I shouldn’t say happy. It’s fine for that to be allowed, to be legal. I won’t use our government funds for that.”
But in August 2004, Governor Romney appeared to express support for expanded federal backing of embryonic work. Ann Romney held a news conference that month in which she said that she supported such research and that she believed it could be done “morally and ethically.” Soon afterward, in response to questions about the issue, Eric Fehrnstrom, a spokesman for Mr. Romney, told The Boston Globe that the governor “wants to encourage and support scientific research and the discovery of new cures.”
And Romney might want to get his dates straight. His pro-life epiphany just doesn’t add up:
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has long cited a November 2004 meeting with a Harvard stem cell researcher as the moment that changed his long-held stance of supporting abortion rights to his current "pro-life" position opposing legal abortion.But several actions Romney took mere months after that meeting call into question how deep-seated his conversion truly was.
Within two months of his epiphany on this issue, Romney appointed to a judgeship a Democrat who was an avowed supporter of abortion rights. In May 2005, Romney also declared his support for a House bill lifting President Bush's ban on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research -- a bill he now said he opposes.
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