Viral video: Unscripted Romney passionately advocates pro-life position
A rereleased video from 2007 that shows a clearly incensed Mitt Romney giving Iowa Newsradio WHO talk show host Jan Mickelsons an off-air piece of his mind has “become a viral sensation,” garnering over 1.8 million hits in just five days.
Romney, then a presidential candidate in the 2008 election cycle, took offense to questions during the interview about his Mormon faith and converting from pro-abortion to pro-life.
Headlines since yesterday are focused on how “testy” Romney became about the tenets of Mormonism. My take-away was, “Wow, this guy is passionately pro-life”….
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxMD02zU9SE[/youtube]
Romney later said he did not know he was being videotaped. I found his description of the Second Coming fascinating, but here were the key excerpts on the life issue:
Romney: But you’re not giving me the opportunity to explain to you that my faith has very strong beliefs that if I commit an abortion, encourage an abortion… I was beaten up in Boston because I pointed out time and again that I encouraged girls not to get abortions, that I told them to have adoptions. I have never done anything that in any way violates the principles of my Church - in that regard, I’ve made other mistakes – but in that regard.
But the Church does not say that a member of our Church has to be apposed to allowing choice in society. It does not say that. And therefore, there are Mormon Democrats. There’s a Democratic party in Massa… in Utah, filled with Mormons, and the Church doesn’t say they’re wrong, they’re being excommunicated. No, it says, look, we are vehemently apposed to abortion, ourselves, and for ourselves. But we allow other people to make their own choice. I disagree with that view. Politically, I looked and said, you know what, that’s wrong. And its not a Mormon thing, it’s a secular position to say you know what, I was wrong, we should have as a society a prohibition on abortion in the following circumstances. But its not violating my faith, let me assure you.
Mickelson: I hope we can do this, and we we can spend some quality time on the air rather than the sound bites.
Romney: No, I mean I don’t like coming on the air, and having you go after my Church, and me and my-
Mickelson: I’m not going after your Church.
Romney: I know, that’s right, but I’m not running as a Mormon. And I get a little tired of coming on a show like yours and having it all about Mormon.
Mickelson: See, I don’t mind it being about that.
Romney: I do. I do.
Mickelson: I agree with the ethics of your Church, for Pete’s sake.
Romney, getting up to leave: So do I. So do I.
Mickelson: I was trying…
Romney: No you’re trying to tell me that I’m not a faithful Mormon or that I’m not [inaudible] my Church.
Mickelson: No I’m trying to get you to reconcile what I think is a disparity.
Romney: And have a great discussion about Mormonism, and the Mormon Church, and reading the doctrines of the Church, and where my view is, and you know what, I’m not running to talk about Mormonism.
Mickelson: Yeah, but the point is the people who are likely to vote, don’t want to elect a Ted Kennedy, who comes back – or a Senator Harkin – who comes here to Dowling, and comes here to Iowa, and says, “I’m pro-life,” and then when he gets to Washington stands up and becomes pro-choice.
Romney: Here is your opportunity to have that settled in your mind. I was governor four years. This is not just what I’m talking about. I was governor four years. I had a number of pieces of legislation that came to my desk that dealt with abortion, abstinence education, RU-486, and so forth. I vetoed any bill that was in favor of choice. I was entirely consistent in favor of life. And so it’s not just my word that you have to take. Look at my record.
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
“I was governor four years. This is not just what I’m talking about. I was governor four years. I had a number of pieces of legislation that came to my desk that dealt with abortion, abstinence education, RU-486, and so forth. I vetoed any bill that was in favor of choice. I was entirely consistent in favor of life. And so it’s not just my word that you have to take. Look at my record.”
That is an pretty definitive claim on the part of Romney.
Does any one have documented evidence that would expose that claim as a bold faced lie?
Romney’s record has governor of Mass. should not be difficult to examine and verify or disprove his claim.
Gov Romney believes US citizens are capable of doing better than they do in planning the children they produce!!! How great is that??? He has confidence in the average citizen.
ktb, my understanding is that he did not do anything to repeal existing abortion laws because he had campaigned on that platform and he is an honest man. Any ‘new’ anti-life legislation that came across his desk he vetoed.
We know all we need to know. The polls will open in mere hours, and if we turn out WE WILL elect Mitt Romney.
“Arise, arise, Riders of Théoden!
Fell deeds awake, fire and slaughter!
spear shall be shaken, shield be splintered,
a sword-day, a red day, ere the sun rises!
Ride now, ride now!”
-JRR Tolkien
I read of a horrific story where a two year old child fell into an African dog cage/dsiplay at a Pittsburg zoo and was killed. They described how truamatized the people were that witnessed this. I would have been affected as well. My question is, why aren’t people similarly traumatized regarding abortion? What is it about abortion that makes at least half of the population turn a blind eye to essentailly the same thing? I mean don’t they believe that it’s a living human child being killed? Is it becasue it’s done in a sterile environment by a “doctor”? How is the result any different, I mean, a child ends up dead? A child with their whole life in front of them. It’s very confounding to me.
John Lewandowski, you are awesome.
Hisman, there is no way I would not be falling into that cage to my child 2.4 seconds after he fell in. Conflating your analogy and my initial reaction, I feel moved to sacrifice a whole lot more to save babies.
I saw this video a few days ago when the hits were only 16k. I thought that they might wait just before election day to pormote this video. However, I think it makes Romney look pretty good, and passionate. If they Dems think this is going to hurt Romney I think they are mistaken.
Hisman, in my opinion in comes down to two reasons.
1) For the ignorant, it is because they don’t see the preborn baby. Most people are like Thomas, they need to see before they believe.
2) For the rest, it is because they actively deny God. They don’t value the human life of others as much as they have an interest in their own liberty. It is because they deny that values, by definition, are attached and participate in the transcendent Good, and therefore apply equally to everyone. They deny the transcendent source of life; therefore they deny that life has value outside what they assign it.
It seems like Romney’s life journey has brought him to a point of ‘conviction’ about the humanity of the pre-natal child.
His faith has informed his worldview and his theology has become his biography.
Just re-inforces the conclusion that he is the better of the two choices for president.
I don’t see how an image of an abortion is any less offensive than an image of Christ on the cross.
We wear that around our necks. Why can’t we wear abortion photos on our shirts?
Everyone will hate you because you are committed to me. … John 15:21 They will treatyou this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me.
To further explain the blindness of the abortion supporters. As mentioned earlier, the blindess of the abortion supporter is due to both 1) physical blindness and 2) moral blindness.
The physical blindness of the abortion supporter is also related to their inability to see with their mind’s eye ( to understand) the science of human development. This lack of understanding of human development is what The Life Institute and some of our secular pro-lifers focus on – they want to educate the secular world about the science of life. The more troubling problem, in my opinion, is the moral blindness of some of the abortion supporters. These individuals who are morally blind to the wrong of abortion presupposes that they understand the science of human development. These morally blind supporters of abortion simply refuse to recognize the value and worth of the preborn child – these individuals are the activists, they are the glue that holds the abortion movement together. They attack religion and especially Christianity because they know Christianity is their polar opposite on morality. Prolifers need to develop a plan of attack to deal with both of these issues (groups): the moral blindness and the blind ignorance.
If prolifers only deal with the blind ignorance it will be like cutting the tops off of the weeds, and it will not be dealing with the root of the problem. The roots, the morally blind, will continue to be imbedded in the soil of America ready to grow again if they are not constantly pulled out. Christians need to learn to fight the philosophical/metaphysical/spiritual battle against moral relativism (aka moral blindness).