Pro-life Republicans hoping for a clear indication that their presidential candidate respects life from conception were disconcerted to find Massachusetts “moderate” Mitt Romney stopping by for a $50,000-per-plate fundraising dinner May 16 at the Miami home of Phil Frost (left), an executive with Teva Pharmaceuticals, the company that manufactures Plan B One-Step — also known as the “Morning After” abortion pill.
While Teva markets the pill as a simple contraceptive, pro-life activists point out that the drug can prevent the implantation of a fertilized egg in a woman’s uterus — thus the moniker “abortion pill.” Explained Wendy Wright of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute: “It changes the lining of the uterus so that an embryo can’t implant — or if an embryo is implanted, it can’t survive. So it really should be labeled an abortion drug.”
Nonetheless, Romney, whose past record on abortion has pro-lifers concerned, appeared to have no qualms about the questionable fundraiser. Neither, interestingly, did Brian Burch, president of CatholicVote.org, who insisted to the Daily Caller that “what matters is whether a President Romney will end all taxpayer support for abortion-inducing drugs, repeal unconstitutional mandates that force private institutions to cover such drugs, and whether he will make progress in building a culture of life.”
But Brian Camenker, head of the Massachusetts pro-family group MassResistance, saw it a bit differently. “It’s a huge disappointment,” he told LifeSiteNews.com of Romney’s apparent compromise. “You wouldn’t see someone who was really pro-life doing a fundraiser with somebody who helped the abortion industry.”
Similarly, Penny Nance of the pro-life Concerned Women for America told the Daily Caller that Romney’s acceptance of Frost’s “dirty money” causes her to “question if Gov. Romney has a clear understanding of what it means to be pro-life.”
Even Planned Parenthood head Cecile Richards criticized the GOP presidential candidate for his apparent double standard — appearing to stand as the pro-life alternative to Obama, while taking abortion money. “Mitt Romney can’t have it both ways,” Richards said in a statement. “The record is clear: Mitt Romney has vowed to restrict access to birth control, including emergency contraception, and undermine millions of women’s access to family planning.”
A liberal political activist site, ThinkProgress.org, can take the credit for first reporting the disturbing story. In noting that Romney would appear at the abortion pill executive’s mansion for dinner with other GOP donors, the website also recalled that Romney had earlier waxed particularly vocal in reaction to Obama’s announced contraception mandate. Declared a supposedly indignant Romney to a campaign crowd in Colorado last February: “This same administration said that the churches and the institutions they run — such as schools and let’s say adoption agencies, hospitals — that they have to provide for their employees free of charge, contraceptives, morning after pills, in other words abortive pills, and the like at no cost. Think what that does to people in faiths that do not share those views. This is a violation of conscience.”
Apparently, rank-and-file Republicans were unbothered by Romney’s double standard. According to the Christian Science Monitor, by the day of the fundraiser there was little reaction to the event in the “conservative blogosphere,” with one pro-life strategist pointing out that presidential candidates are used to taking money from whoever will give it. “The main thing would be whether he wiggled on any pro-life stances,” the strategist said, noting that in the atmosphere of compromise that makes up American politics, office-seekers “seem to be able to separate their politics from their fundraising … as Obama hits up Wall Street while making them his favorite targets.”
The liberal-leaning NYMag.com put it this way: “Romney probably just views Phil Frost as another filthy-rich businessman to befriend, not an abortion peddler. Maybe his campaign didn’t even know about that particular drug on Teva’s laundry list of products. We suspect the campaign didn’t hand out goodie bags with packages of ‘abortive pills,’ but for $50,000 a plate.”
As for the millions of pro-life conservatives who were concerned about the issue, the Romney camp had nothing to say. Bloomberg News reported that “Romney’s campaign spokeswoman, Andrea Saul, didn’t respond to a request for comment on how the candidate, who opposes abortion rights, could accept support from the maker of ‘abortive pills.’ ”
