Seven months ago, I sat in a crowded South Carolina ballroom and listened to three presidential candidates promise the moon to “Personhood” activists. The Personhood movement, as a lot of people learned in 2011, aims to change laws and constitutions in every state so that life truly “starts at conception” – so that a fertilized egg gains the legal protections of anyone currently living outside the womb*. The three candidates who embraced this, and endorsed Personhood USA’s goals that day, were Rick Perry, Newt Gingrich, and Ron Paul.
Not Mitt Romney.
Personhood USA noticed.
Today, the organization released a statement condemning the Romney-Ryan campaign, accusing it of pulling the rug out from Todd Akin because of a deep-seated discomfort with the campaign to ban abortion. Personhood USA’s spokesman Jennifer Mason explained:
In calling for Congressman Akin’s exit of the Senate race, Governor Romney and Congressman Ryan are throwing a prolife Congressman under the bus over a blunder, and it seems they are doing so because they disagree with his no exceptions position on abortion – a position that is an integral part of the Republican Party platform, the same position that was held by President Ronald Reagan. We are left with Reagan Republicans, who agree with the Republican Party platform on abortion, and Romney Republicans, a fringe group of liberals who compromise on human life. Governor Romney and Congressman Ryan now have the opportunity to stop their opposition to the Republican Party platform. By withdrawing their call for Akin to quit the race, and retracting their anti-life position on the death penalty for children conceived in rape, Romney and Ryan would at the very least be in agreement with the Republican Party’s position on abortion.
What affront was Mason talking about? The studied Romney-Ryan-Priebus walkback from the Republican Party platform. “Romney said his position is contrary to Republican platform,” she explained. But there’s no way for social conservatives to collect their revenge.
*A hilariously stupid typo has been fixed.
