Abortion views 'evolved and deepened'

Governor Mitt Romney, explaining his increasing opposition to abortion, says in an opinion article today that his position ''evolved and deepened" during this year's State House debate over embryonic stem cell research.

''In considering the issue of embryo cloning and embryo farming, I saw where the harsh logic of abortion can lead -- to the view of innocent new life as nothing more than research material or commodity," Romney writes for the Globe's op-ed page. ''I have also observed the bitterness and fierce anger that still linger 32 years after Roe v. Wade," the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion.

The article is the governor's most detailed discussion of his hardening position on abortion.

In 1994, Romney took on Senator Edward M. Kennedy, saying abortion should be ''safe and legal." In his 2002 race for governor, he told the state Republican Party's convention in his acceptance speech: ''I respect and will fully protect a woman's right to choose. That choice is a deeply personal one, and the women of our state should make it based on their beliefs, not mine and not the government's." Romney also signed a Planned Parenthood questionnaire saying he supported ''the substance of the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade."

But Romney signaled this year that his stance on abortion was shifting, and his top political adviser, Michael Murphy, was quoted as saying in a national magazine that the Republican governor was a ''pro-life Mormon faking it as a pro-choice friendly."

The stem-cell debate this spring, which ended when the Legislature overrode Romney's veto of a bill encouraging such research, raised questions for Beacon Hill lawmakers, especially about when life begins. Romney, in opposing the bill, said he had concluded that life began when an egg is fertilized.

Evelyn Reilly, director of public policy for the Massachusetts Family Institute, which opposes the Roe v. Wade ruling, said she believes the governor when he says the stem cell issue reframed the abortion argument for him.

''When you go through the thought processes on stem cell research, which forces you to think about what an embryo is, you have to be intellectually honest and say conception is the beginning of a human life, so this has solidified in his mind," Reilly said.

''I think his understanding of the beginning of human life has grown and deepened, probably as a result of the stem-cell issue," Reilly added.

Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association of Michigan, a staunch opponent of legalized abortion, suggested that antiabortion voters would see Romney's new position as a transparent attempt to to curry favor with conservative voters in a presidential primary.

''Pro-family voters don't believe in evolution," Glenn said in a telephone interview. ''It's nothing a lot of other politicians haven't tried to do."

Kellie Rose Ferguson, executive director of The Republican Majority for Choice, said Romney's Op-Ed article and veto constitute an ''entire reversal" of the positions he espoused in 2002, earning the endorsement of her group. She said she believes Romney is changing his position to position himself as he ponders a presidential candidacy.

According to a CBS News poll conducted on July 13 and 14, 59 percent of Americans believe that the Roe v. Wade ruling was ''a good thing" and 32 percent a ''bad thing." However, voters in the Republican Party were split on the issue, with 47 percent in support of the ruling and 47 percent against. By contrast, 68 percent of Democrats thought the ruling was a ''good thing," as opposed to 24 percent who didn't.

In his opinion piece, Romney said that he sees merit on both sides of the abortion argument, but that ultimately ''the starting point should be the innocence and vulnerability of the child waiting to be born."