Conservative Activists Warn "Aggressive Cover-up" of Pro-abortion, Pro-gay Romney Legacy

LifeSiteNews ^ | 1/3/08 | Peter J. Smith

[wagglebee]

BOSTON, January 3, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A number of Massachusetts conservative leaders are warning pro-life and pro-family voters to pay close attention to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's decisions as governor on marriage, life, children, and family, saying that a number of conservatives are covering up a pro-abortion, pro-gay legacy to sustain his candidacy.

John Haskins, of the Parents' Rights Coalition, Peter LaBarbera, President of Americans for Truth, William Cotter, President of Operation Rescue-Boston and others are decrying what they call a cover-up by the "conservative establishment" of Romney's gubernatorial record that shows he is not the convert to the pro-life, pro-family, pro-marriage bandwagon as he has claimed to be.

"Behind the empty gestures and deceptive rhetoric, Romney was not pro-life or a defender of marriage by any stretch of the imagination. He was a disaster," said John O'Gorman, a member of the board of directors of Massachusetts Citizens For Life (MCFL)

The Massachusetts conservative activists point out that Romney approved taxpayer funded abortions under the state health care plan he signed in 2006. "Commonwealth Care" requires a $50 co-pay for abortion and prominently included Planned Parenthood on its advisory board. The move deeply disturbed pro-life leaders in Massachusetts, who were looking for a different Romney, who had publicized his purported pro-life conversion in July 2005 op-ed in the Boston Globe.

O'Gorman said that Romney had been touting a pro-life award from MCFL as some kind of proof of his conversion, when in truth he received a political leadership award, the Mullins Award for Political Leadership from the Pioneer Valley Chapter, "not a pro-life award and not approved by MCFL's state board of directors."

Haskins added that Romney received the award after paying $15,000 to MCFL, before gaining the award through the local chapter, instead of MCFL's state headquarters.
 
"MCFL was in financial difficulty when Romney's check came in and has been reluctant to contradict him publicly," Haskins said. "There are some very fine people associated with MCFL, but to let Romney hustle voters with this conveniently cooked-up pro-life award is a tragic mistake."

"If Mitt Romney outruns his record in Massachusetts and buys his way into the White House it will be partly because people who know the facts did not expose this pro-life award as not much more than a dime-store rip-off," Haskins added.

Ray Neary of ProLife Massachusetts said Romney should not be called pro-life for simply embracing what is known as an "anti-Roe" or "federalist" position that would allow states to decide their own abortion laws.

"We who have been in the trenches since 1973 know Mitt Romney has not switched to a pro-life stance, as he claims. He has merely switched to a 'states' rights' pro-abortion position - attaching a 'pro-life' label to it," Neary said. "Just overturning Roe v Wade would not legally prevent a single unborn child from being destroyed - but only change the locale."

The activists also said voters should know Romney's support for homosexual indoctrination of public schoolchildren and refusal to order education officials to respect the rights of parents to prevent their children from being subjected to this indoctrination. They also point out that Massachusetts judges had no legal authority to mandate "gay marriage" and Romney used "that deception to force officials to issue marriage licenses illegally modified without the legislature's approval and perform the ceremonies." 

"A clean-cut family man who after six decades in Mormonism was still strongly pro-abortion and pro-homosexual unions, pushed gay adoption, actively funded pro-homosexuality indoctrination in schools over parents' objections and was far sloppier than any Democrat with constitutions...Now there's a politician the establishment can trust," said Peter LaBarbera, President of Americans for Truth.

The Politico's Daniel Allott has observed that the apparent inconsistencies between Mitt Romney's rhetoric and his record on social conservative issues, not Mormonism, is the chief reason why Romney is struggling to convince religious conservatives to vote for him. Allott observes that Romney has "a mixed and rather paltry record on life" and has issued misleading statements like "I came down on the side of life [in] every single instance as governor of Massachusetts" that cannot be reconciled with approving taxpayer funded abortion in 2006, abandoning plans to defend Catholic and private hospitals from being forced to dispense emergency contraception and appointing a notoriously pro-abortion judge.

"In his speech on the role of religion in public life, Romney may have won some admirers by portraying himself as a man of authentic faith," Allott wrote. "Religious conservatives wish Romney would show just as much authenticity when discussing his record on the protection of nascent human life."
 
To Read the Politico's "Romney, get real about your abortion record" by Daniel Allott: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1207/7482.html ;

Related coverage by LifeSiteNews.com:

The Romney Report: An Analysis of Republican Mitt Romney's Legacy on Life and Family
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/may/07050711.html

The Romney Report: An In-Depth Analysis of Mitt Romney's Legacy on Life and Family Continued - Part II
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/may/07051409.html

Gov. Romney and His Enforcement of the Pro-Same-Sex Goodridge Decision
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/may/07051511.html  

[Ukiapah Heep]

That's three things.

[SatinDoll]

Just before Rev. Huckabee climbed on the election bandwagon, his political organization donated money to Planned Parenthood in Arkansas. He also has the enthusiastic support of the NEA.

Pro-lifers and homeschooler...BEWARE!!

[Duke Nukum]

And people wonder why social cons have flocked to Huckabee.

I still wonder. I can't figure out why any conservatives would support either of these two bozos.

Oh yeah, Irrational Fear of Hillary Syndrome.

[AlaskaErik]

It’s amazing how the Romneybots will steer clear of posts like this that expose the real Romney but they’ll flock to posts that are supportive of him and then they’ll lambaste the rest of us when we say we don’t trust Romney. I, for one, will never vote for Romney. Not ever.

[WOSG]

Romney’ record in Massachusetts was quite conservative.

[AFA-Michigan]

Flaglady, please post along with that letter how much $$$ Romney donated to each signer’s organization immediately prior to their signing the letter.

[AFA-Michigan]

“Romney’s record in Massachusetts was quite conservative.”

And pigs fly.

[AFA-Michigan]

SATIN: “Huckabee’s political organization donated money to Planned Parenthood in Arkansas.”

That’s a new one. Please provide documentation.

SATIN: “He also has the enthusiastic support of the NEA. pro-lifers and homeschoolers...BEWARE!!”

Wow.

Somebody better tell all those homeschoolers who manned phone banks for Huck in Iowa. And Mike Ferris, president of the Home School Legal Defense Association, who endorsed him. And that home school mom he appointed to the state Board of Education.

The truth is, the NEA has not endorsed him. Their state affiliate in N.H. did, but only because they promised their Repub members they’d endorse a Repub, but choose only from Repubs who came to their convention and talked to them, and he was the only one who went.

Union officials were somewhat deceptive in their endorsement news release, saying they endorsed him because he has opposed vouchers.

But the fact is that many CONSERVATIVE groups don’t support vouchers for fear that govt regulations will follow the transfer of govt funds.

Most School Choice activists now agree that a Universal Tuition Tax Credit is the far preferable mechanism, because it involves no transfer of govt funds.

And whaddaya know...

CNS NEWS
Washington, D.C.
January 3, 2008

Huckabee and Education
by Terence P. Jeffrey, Editor in Chief

...Conservatives, I suspect, will find some of Huckabee’s reservations about vouchers more persuasive than others. He cites a compelling argument from Christian school administrators, for example, who told him they fear that “once you take government money, you take government control.”

...Huckabee did offer an alternative route to school choice for parents who don’t want to send their children to public schools.

“I think that we ought to have tax credits for a family whose decision is to put their children in an alternative environment. And that is something that I would support,” he said. “It’s an empowering method to families.”

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCommentary.asp?Page=/Commentary/archive/200801/COM20080103a.html

[MaxMax]

[8mmMauser]

Pinged from Terri Dailies

8mm

[SatinDoll]

I am a home schooler. Huckabee, as governor of Arkansas, was “in bed” with the NEA of that state.

And he donated money to Planned Parenthood in Arkansas, just before deciding to run for the Republican candidacy.
Poor planning, I would say.

This information comes from friends in Arkansas, evangelical Christians who are Baptists thoroughly disgusted with the two-faced former governor. These same folks kindly provided me with information about Clinton back in early 1992. Same picture.

The man is not what he seems. Like Romney, like Clinton, he is a powere hungry and a liar.

[chicagolady]

NEITHER IS HUCKABEE!!

[Palladin]

Huckabee is now the frontrunner, after whoopin’ Mitt’s heiny in Iowa.

So—what else to expect but rumors, smears, innuendo, and mudslinging from the Mitt-Losers?

[CatQuilt]

Stood for religious freedom. Last year, Governor Romney was stalwart in defense of the right of Catholic Charities of Boston to refuse to allow homosexual couples to adopt children in its care. Catholic Charities was loudly accused of “discrimination,” but Governor Romney correctly pointed out that it is unjust to force a religious agency to violate the tenets of its faith in order to placate a special-interest group.

Filed “An Act Protecting Religious Freedom” in the Massachusetts legislature to save Catholic Charities of Boston and other religious groups from being forced to violate their moral principles or stop doing important charitable work.

I wonder why he forced Catholic hospitals in Massachusetts to distribute the "morning after" pill then, if he's for "religious freedom"?

[Das Outsider]

This obsession with whatever candidate the two political parties are marketing this week or next misses the bigger picture. Our primary job as Christians is not to act as unpaid support squadrons for one or the other of these politicians.

The media hacks and paid political professionals are having a good old time watching us in the act of cannibalism. The same guys who were talking up Huckabee as an alternative to a seemingly presumptive Giuliani nomination four weeks ago are now trashing the former Governor left and right, as though they were ignorant of his record this entire time.

It's refreshing to read posts like yours because so often I come across self-professed conservative Christians or "Evangelicals" who seem to believe that it's OK to engage in scandal-mongering and crude character assassination, so long as it's against "the other guy."

We are called to be salt and light, not tools of a sensationalistic, self-interested media, whether it be liberal or conservative.

[RKBA Democrat]

“We are called to be salt and light, not tools of a sensationalistic, self-interested media, whether it be liberal or conservative.”

If our Lord were to return to us today, would Christian conservatives focus on that, or on the minutae of the latest election?

This obsession with secular politics borders on idolatry.

Thanks for the nice comment.

[Das Outsider]

Thanks for the nice comment.

You're more than welcome. Keep up the good work.

[FreedomProtector]

Thanks for posting, I don’t understand how conservatives can be conned into voting for this guy.

Mitt Romney: A Massachusetts Liberal for President
http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/01/mitt_romney_a_massachusetts_li.html
Mitt Romney flip flops on Abortion
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFMdK0TWtks

Romney does not support 2nd Amendment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzYTdM9b5F4

Romney on Abortion 2002
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_w9pquznG4

Romney does not want to return to Reagan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pVqZzHm3Z4&feature=related

Mitt Romney Flip-Flops on hunting, abortion and iraq and dog
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PURfrORhWPc

Romney Flip flops/Duncun Hunter sets the record straight
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AffxIfq4LWQ

Duncan Hunter/Huckabee stand up to Clinton/Corrupt News Network plant/Romney flip-flops on gays in military
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wU-AFU_OiFo

[flaglady47]

“Flaglady, please post along with that letter how much $$$ Romney donated to each signer’s organization immediately prior to their signing the letter.”

Your inference regarding Romney is as sleazy as you yourself probably are for making it.

[AFA-Michigan]

FlagLady, I note that you were unable to offer a substantive response to my request, and thus responded with a personal attack (mild as it was).

The truth, however, is not “sleazy.”

As in the following example...

1. March 2005 — AFTER Romney’s alleged “pro-life” conversion, Mass Citizens for Life truthfully characterizes him in the Boston Globe as an “abortion-rights supporter.”

“Marie Sturgis, legislative director of Massachusetts Citizens for Life, said she hasn’t detected any change in Romney’s stance. The group considers Romney to be an abortion-rights supporter, as do national antiabortion groups such as the Family Research Council.”

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/03/25/roe_v_wade_omitted_from_proclamation/

1. December 2005 — A full year AFTER Romney’s alleged “pro-life” conversion, Massachusetts Citizens for Life criticizes Romney for flip-flopping on whether Catholic hospitals should be forced to provide the morning after pill.

http://realserver.bu.edu:8080/ramgen/w/b/wbur/wburnews/2005/me_1209_2.rm

3. December 2006 — Mitt Romney makes $15,000 donation to Massachusetts Citizens for Life.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/11/us/politics/11romney.html

4. January 2007 — A month after receiving Romney’s $15,000 donation, Mass Citizens for Life signs letter (the one you posted), attesting to Romney’s solid “pro-life” credentials. (Note from the NY Times article that other signers of the letter you posted also received large cash contributions from Romney before signing the letter.)

On second thought, FlagLady, you’re right, there is something “sleazy” about all the above.

So I repeat my original request:

“Flaglady, please post along with that letter how much $$$ Romney donated to each signer’s organization immediately prior to their signing the letter.”