It Depends on Who's Changing His Tune

Media idiotarians are all over Mitt Romney for changing his tune on abortion. I say bravo to him for at last recognizing abortion for what it truly is, infanticide. And if Romney was rather late in coming to his present view, let us be grateful he at least has finally done so.

When I was a foolish youth (is there any other kind?) I flirted with the trendy viewpoints and, for a time, supported abortion "rights." (The zeitgeist in the dreary 'seventies, the days of Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan and NOW, could easily overpower impressionable little minds like mine). As time went on and I responded slowly to Christ's bidding me back to His Church, I concomitantly divined (also slowly, I confess) life was God's greatest gift, thus the immorality and horror the depriving His gift from the innocent unborn. Many of us arrive at God's truths not via sudden epiphany rather through careful reasoning and revelation. Romney strikes me as a sincere man and I have no trouble believing that is how he arrived at the truth about abortion.

I wonder therefore why those media critics, so quick to pile on Romney, have been so strangely silent in the past when other prominent politicos have had a change of heart on abortion. Here are quotes from some of them. Can you identify the authors? The answers are below, along with the year the were made.

a) "Let me assure you that I share your belief that innocent human life must be protected, and I am committed to furthering this goal."

b) "I do not support any Constitutional Amendment pertaining to the legality of abortion."

c) "I am opposed to abortion and to government funding of abortions. We should not spend state funds on abortions because so many people believe abortion is wrong."

d) "What happens to the mind of a person, and the moral fabric of a nation, that accepts the aborting of the life of a baby without a pang of conscience? What kind of a person and what kind of a society will we have 20 years hence if life can be taken so casually? It is that question, the question of our attitude, our value system, and our mind-set with regard to the nature and worth of life itself that is the central question confronting mankind. Failure to answer that question affirmatively may leave us with a hell right here on earth."

e) "While the deep concern of a woman bearing an unwanted child merits consideration and sympathy, it is my personal feeling that the legalization of abortion on demand is not in accordance with the value which our civilization places on human life. Wanted or unwanted, I believe that human life, even at its earliest stages, has certain rights which must be recognized -- the right to be born, the right to love, the right to grown old."

Answers:

a) Al Gore, 1987

b) Dick Gephart, 1984

c) Bill Clinton, 1986

d) Jesse Jackson, 1977

e) Ted Kennedy, 1971 (Teddy was a Roman Catholic in those days.)

Funny, I don't recall any criticisms, any accusations of expediency, in the New York Times or Ms. when the blokes above revised their views on abortion.

(Thanks to Carolyn's Little World for the quotes.)