The discovery of another Mitt Romney lie or flip-flop barely causes any eyebrows to go up. Indeed, Romney’s expertise in the falsehood department allows him to lie with a bold and straight face. Rather, one would be stunned if it would surface that he had actually been consistently conservative on even a single issue; something which hasn’t yet been found.
In the Arizona debate last Wednesday, Romney falsely claimed he’d been pro-life as governor of Massachusetts. When questioned directly about Romneycare – that it forced catholic hospitals to provide contraception – he lied blatantly once again with his response “absolutely not.”
The BCI has done a complete exposure of this particular Romney lie, and The Right Scoop and many others have linked to the article, calling it a “must read.” I agree with the call to “must read” although I’ll also take it a step further.
Romney’s lies about his true stance on contraception should be viewed as a call to arms for conservatives. This primary has extremely weighty issues on the line, far weightier than who could beat Obama (something that’s impossible to know so far in advance.)
Romney’s lies on contraception encompasses three areas conservatives profess to strongly defend; character, truth, and life, and this primary will reveal whether conservatives are truly ready to stick up for their beliefs. Having Mitt Romney serve as a representative of conservatives will signal that we are willing to look the other way when the person in question is not from the Democrat Party and that we are fraudulent with our convictions. We therefore must stand strong against Romney, clearly express our distaste and disapproval of him, and fight his candidacy with all our might.
With his lies about contraception at the debate Romney has shown that neither truth, nor life, nor character matter to him. Nor does an individual’s or an institution’s freedom to choose what actions they wish to take, for Romneycare – like Obamacare – also imposed mandates.
Here’s an excerpt of the BCI's article on the truth about Romney and his position on requiring catholic hospitals to provide contraceptive measures and make sure to read the entire article at The BCI.
1975. Massachusetts statute passed which allowed private hospitals to opt out of abortion, sterilization, and contraception.
2002: When Mitt Romney was running for governor, he filled out a questionnaire for NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts, and in response to a question, “…Will you support efforts to increase access to emergency contraception?” Romney said: “Yes.”
2004: the Massachusetts legislature considered an “emergency contraception” mandate. It would have required all hospitals to inform rape victims of the availability of such “emergency contraceptives” and provide them to the rape victim if she wanted them even when they would cause an abortion. Maria Parker of the Massachusetts Catholic Conference, the public policy organization of the state’s Catholic bishops, explained in testimony to the state legislature why Catholic hospitals could not do this.
That bill passed in the State Senate, but not in the House.
2005: Emergency contraception bill passes Senate and House, with veto-proof majority in both chambers of the Democrat-controlled legislature. In July, the House and Senate reached a compromise on it that would protect Catholic hospitals from being forced to act against their faith.
July 25, 2005: Romney vetoed the bill — even though it was clear his veto would be overridden.
He published an op-ed in the Boston Globe the next day explaining his decision. “The bill does not involve only the prevention of conception,” he wrote. “The drug it authorizes would also terminate life after conception.” Romney said the veto kept his pledge not to change the state’s abortion laws.
Romney made no mention of the religious liberty issue in his op-ed. But then, the bill, as the Massachusetts Catholic Conference and the House majority leader understood it, did not allow coercion of Catholic hospitals.
Dec. 7, 2005: a week before the law was to take effect, the Boston Globe ran an article headlined, “Private hospitals exempt on pill law“. The article said the state Department of Public Health had determined that the emergency contraception law “does not nullify a statute passed years ago that says privately run hospitals cannot be forced to provide abortions or contraception.”
Public Health Commissioner Paul Cote Jr. told the Globe: “We felt very clearly that the two laws don’t cancel each other out and basically work in harmony with each other.”
Romney spokesman Fehrnstrom told the Globe that Romney agreed with the Department of Public Health on the issue. The governor, he said, “respects the views of health care facilities that are guided by moral principles on this issue.”
“The staff of DPH did their own objective and unbiased legal analysis,” Romney’s spokesman told the Globe. “The brought it to us, and we concur in it.”
December 8, 2005: The Globe itself ruefully bowed to this legal analysis. It ran an editorial headlined: “A Plan B Mistake.” “The legislators failed, however,” the Globe said, “to include wording in the bill explicitly repealing a clause in an older statute that gives hospitals the right, for reasons of conscience, not to offer birth control services.”
Liberals joined in attacking Romney’s defense of Catholic hospitals. But that defense did not last long.
The same day the Globe ran its editorial, Romney held a press conference. Now he said his legal counsel had advised him the new emergency contraception law did trump the 1975 conscience law.
“On that basis, I have instructed the Department of Public Health to follow the conclusion of my own legal counsel and to adopt that sounder view,” Romney said. “In my personal view, it’s the right thing for hospitals to provide information and access to emergency contraception to anyone who is a victim of rape.”
December 9, 2005: Boston Globe reports, “Romney says no hospitals are exempt from pill law“.“Governor Mitt Romney reversed course on the state’s new emergency contraception law yesterday, saying that all hospitals in the state will be obligated to provide the morning-after pill to rape victims. The decision overturns a ruling made public this week by the state Department of Public Health that privately run hospitals could opt out of the requirement if they objected on moral or religious grounds.”
Lifesite News reported at the time, “Romney Does Flip-Flop and Forces Catholic Hospitals to Distribute Morning-After-Pill”:
In a shocking turn-around, Massachusetts’s governor Mitt Romney announced yesterday that Roman Catholic and other private hospitals in the state will be forced to offer emergency contraception to sexual assault victims under new state legislation, regardless of the hospitals’ moral position on the issue.
December 16, 2005: Archdiocesan newspaper, The Pilot, reports, “Romney: emergency contraception law applies to Catholic hospitals”
A constitutional law expert advising BCI says that the legislative intent was clearly to allow the 1975 statute to prevail. The formulation of the regulations is supposed to follow the legislative intent. Romney actually violated the law and his oath of office by NOT going with the legislative intent, and overruling the legislative intent (as well as the Constitution).
But it was not merely a legal interpretation by the legal counsel to Romney. Romney said he personally thought it was the “right thing” for hospitals to provide access to emergency contraception for any rape victims.
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