Romney Supports Two-Step Process Of Allowing States To Decide Abortion Policy, Passing Constitutional Amendment Banning Abortion, Advisers Say

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who is running for the Republican presidential nomination, on Tuesday in an interview with Nevada television station KLAS said that if elected president he would allow individual states to keep abortion legal, the Washington Post reports. Romney earlier this month in an interview with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos said he supports a constitutional amendment that would ban abortion nationwide. According to the Post, the "two very different statements" reflect a "challenge" for Romney as he attempts to be a "champion of the antiabortion movement" (Shear, Washington Post, 8/23).

In an interview with the Associated Press Tuesday, Romney said that giving states control to "fashion their own laws with regard to abortion" should be the "next step" in the abortion debate (Riley, AP/Salt Lake Tribune, 8/22). Top Romney advisers on Tuesday said the governor supports a two-tiered process in which states first would obtain authority to regulate abortion after Roe v. Wade -- the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court case that effectively barred state abortion bans -- is overturned. The second step would be a constitutional amendment that bans most abortions nationwide.

James Bopp -- an attorney who has represented antiabortion groups and a top Romney adviser on abortion -- said, "There's no flip-flopping. There's no contradiction. There's simply step one and step two." Jon Ralston, a columnist for the Las Vegas Sun who interviewed Romney for KLAS, said he believes Romney's "moral positions conflict" with his "states'-rights opinions," adding, "I don't see how you can be antiabortion, be in favor of a constitutional amendment and be in favor of states' rights" (Washington Post, 8/23).

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