Abortion Rights

Abortion rights were back in the news Friday, even as President Barack Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney stepped up their efforts to win the women's vote . Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.), who is facing a tough race to retain his seat in Congress, told reporters Thursday that he was opposed to abortion under any circumstances - and that thanks to medical progress, “you can't find one instance” when it might be necessary to perform an abortion to protect a woman's health.

The death of Arlen Specter inspired a predictably conflicted reaction from supporters of abortion rights: He was the guy who kept Robert Bork off the Supreme Court, perhaps in the process saving Roe vs. Wade --  Specter's favorite "super-duper precedent. " But he also was the pitiless inquisitor of Anita Hill and may thus have been instrumental in the confirmation of Justice Clarence Thomas -- and Thomas is no friend of Roe.  (In 2007, Thomas wrote that "the court's abortion jurisprudence ... has no basis in the Constitution.

Among Mitt Romney's recent attempts to appear a more moderate candidate than his rhetoric had previously indicated is a difficult-to-parse line about abortion. In an interview with the Des Moines Register, the GOP candidate responded to a question about whether he had plans for any abortion bills should he be elected: "There's no legislation with regards to abortion that I'm familiar with that would become part of my agenda. " It's not Romney's fault that this has been widely reported as his saying that he has no plans for legislation to restrict abortion access.

St. Petersburg, Fla. -- On the eve of his only debate with Joe Biden, Republican vice presidential nominee Paul D. Ryan said he and Mitt Romney have the same position on abortion, though he refused to say what, exactly, that was. On Wednesday, at an impromptu stop for ice cream on his way to board a plane for Kentucky, where he is to debate the vice president at Centre College in Danville, Ryan tweaked reporters for asking him “softball” questions...

DELAWARE, Ohio - Mitt Romney clarified Wednesday that he remains opposed to abortion and would take action if elected president to reduce the number of abortions that are performed in this country and around the world. “I think I've said time and again. I'm a pro-life candidate. I'll be a pro-life president,” Romney told reporters while greeting supporters at Bun's Restaurant here. “The actions I'll take immediately are to remove funding for Planned Parenthood. It will not be part of my budget.

AKRON, Ohio - Mitt Romney does not intend to pursue legislation to restrict abortion if elected president, the Republican nominee told the Des Moines Register's editorial board on Tuesday, setting off a late-night skirmish over the controversial social issue. “There's no legislation with regards to abortion that I'm familiar with that would become part of my agenda,” Romney said, according to the Iowa newspaper's website. Romney did say he would reinstate through executive order a ban on American dollars being used to pay for abortions overseas.

Ann Romney declined to answer questions, in an interview on Iowa TV, about her views on birth control and same-sex marriage, saying that such issues weren't what the presidential election would be about and that this wasn't what American women cared much about. She has a point, to a limited extent. These are certainly not the most-talked-about issues; the economy is. But it would be a mistake to narrow the campaign to one solely about tax rates and whether corporations should be subject to rigorous laws concerning environmental and consumer protection and expenditures on Medicare.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Four years ago, Michelle Obama was something of a reluctant would-be first lady. She was living what she described Tuesday as a life "filled with simple joys … Saturdays at soccer games, Sundays at Grandma's house. " A successful White House quest would change all that, in unimaginable ways. She worried, she said, about how the burdens of office would transform her husband and her marriage. She said she worried more about how her young daughters, Sasha and Malia, would fare.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - It might initially sound as oxymoronic as a pro-government libertarian, but a group of Democratic loyalists made the case here Tuesday that there really is such a thing as a “pro-life” Democrat and that their position is bolstered by the party's social justice world view. Two former members of Congress, a political scientist and a law professor made that case on a panel here, while also conceding that they are uncomfortable with some of President Obama's abortion rights positions - like a Health and Human Services Department order that required employers to cover contraception and abortion as part of preventative care, regardless of religious beliefs.

Defiant Senate candidate Todd Akin said in a pair of radio appearances Tuesday that he will not drop out of his race against Sen. Claire McCaskill, promising to “rush to the gunfire” rather than away from it, following his controversial remarks about rape and abortion. Despite urgings from much of the Republican Party hierarchy to drop his candidacy before a deadline this evening, Akin told radio hosts Mike Huckabee and Dana Loesch that he still believes he can beat McCaskill.