Kowtowing To The Right

Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has said that he hasn't decided whether he'll run for president in 2008. He's always said that he plans to remain committed to the people of Massachusetts. His actions speak louder than his words.

Today, Romney vetoed a law passed by the state Legislature that would require hospitals to offer the so-called "morning-after pill" to rape victims and specially trained pharmacists to do the same for patients without a prescription. The pill is a hormone that prevents ovulation, stops the egg from being fertilized by sperm or stops the fertilized egg from attaching itself to the uterine wall.

With the veto, Romney exposes his hypocrisy by putting the lie to his campaign statement that he supported wider access to the pill. He seems to have fallen into the social conservative trap of equating this pill with abortion, or more specifically, with RU-486, the pill that will induce an abortion. This actually prevents conception and essentially acts like a birth-control pill.

With the veto, Romney sides with the extreme fringe of the right wing. The vast majority of Americans support the right to contraception, which is all this pill does. It seems that the Massachusetts governor is simply providing some padding to his Republican resume for a national run, especially since the actual effect of his veto is meaningless. Both the Senate and House passed the legislation by veto-proof margins.