Mitt Romney continued his recent outreach to social conservatives Friday morning with a recorded address to the National Right to life Convention in Arlington, Va.
The presumptive GOP nominee continued his campaign theme that Barack Obama needs to be replaced to get the economy moving again while touching on the pro-life movement’s importance.
“I will be be pro-life president,” Romney said. “If elected president, I will work with you to foster respect for innocent human life with an understanding that a culture that fails to do so ultimately becomes a culture in which respect for all fellow human beings is diminished.”
He then went on to praise the passion and dedication of the pro-life movement and its growth. Recent polls show that the pro-life position has eclipsed the pro-choice position on abortion for the first time in decades.
Romney’s stance on abortion has long been a point of contention for many social conservatives who have greeted him with mistrust because of his former pro-choice position.
In 2002, Romney told NBC’s Tim Russert during a gubernatorial debate that he “would preserve and protect a woman’s right to choose” and that he would keep Massachusetts’ pro-choice legislation in place. Romney also took a similar position during a 1994 debate with the late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) where he endorsed keeping Roe v. Wade on the books.
But Romney told the convention that being asked to sign a law that would have committed state funds for embryonic stem cell research caused him to have a change of heart. He praised the National Right to Life Committee for its effectiveness, suggesting its message had an impact on him.
“I’m just one of many American from every walk of life who found themselves asking an important question, and after thoughtful deliberation came to a heartfelt conclusion,” Romney said. “Innocent life must be respected and protected from its beginning to its natural end.
“Government sanction of abortion devalues human life; as a governor then, I answered every time it came before me that we must protect it.”
Romney then launched into a litany of things he did as governor of Massachusetts to protect pro-life values, such as: opposing human cloning, opposing embryo farming and backing abstinence education.
He also promised to select conservative judges who would adop
