Mitt Romney spoke Friday afternoon to the National Right to Life Convention, the same group that Fred Thompson addressed via video on Thursday as Tommy reported for R4′08 — and he hit a homerun for the pro-life and social conservative crowd with his speech. He managed to defend himself against the attacks of his opponents and not sound victimized, and also laid out a great vision for the social conservative movement. Some excerpts:

“I know that it is not time but conviction that unites us. I proudly follow a long line of converts – George Herbert Walker Bush, Henry Hyde, and Ronald Reagan to name a few…

When I first ran for office, while I was always personally opposed to abortion, I considered whether this should be a private decision or whether it should be a societal and government decision. I concluded that I would support the law as it was in place – effectively, the pro-choice position.

And I was wrong.

What became clear during the cloning debate is how the harsh logic of an absolute right to abortion had cheapened the value of human life to the point that rational people saw a human embryo as nothing more than mere research material to be used, and then destroyed.

The slippery slope was taking us to racks and racks of living human embryos, Brave New World-like, awaiting termination.

What some see as just a clump of cells is actually a human life. Human life has identity. Human life has the capacity to love and be loved. Human life has a profound dignity, undiminished by age or infirmity.

My experience as Governor taught me firsthand that the threat to our culture is real and those in a position to do so must take action to defend it.

Times of decision are moments of great clarity. Before I was Governor, the life issue was just that, an issue. But when responsibility for life or ending life was placed in my hands, I made the right decision. I chose life.

Just like some others in the pro-life movement, a moment of decision became a defining moment.

And so, every time I faced a decision as Governor that related to life, I came down on the side of life.

I fought to ban cloning.

I fought to ban embryo farming.

I fought to define life as beginning at conception rather than at the time of implantation.

I fought for abstinence education in our schools.

And I vetoed a so-called emergency contraception bill that gave young girls abortive drugs without prescription or parental consent.

That is my record as Governor of Massachusetts.

Recently, I was attacked by one of my opponents because when I ran for Governor I promised to maintain the status quo with regards to laws relating to abortion in Massachusetts. Of course, I kept that promise. But in Massachusetts, that meant vetoing pro-choice legislation – as I consistently did as Governor. That’s why last month I was honored with an award from Massachusetts Citizens for Life in recognition of the actions I took as Governor to protect life.

The next president, especially if faced with a hostile Congress, will be confronted with many legislative tests, such as challenging the Hyde amendment and advancing cloning. You can be sure that I will be bringing my gubernatorial experience – and my veto pen – with me to Washington.

The larger problem is there are some people who believe that their pro-choice views must be imposed on everyone. More and more, the vehicle for this imposition is the courts.

Some say that it is ‘OK’ for the courts to impose their personal public policy preferences on society. I am not among them.

Make no mistake: the claimed rights of abortion-on-demand and same-sex marriage are not in the Constitution.

But the problem of an activist bench goes beyond the issue of abortion and gay marriage that.

Slowly but surely, the courts have taken it upon themselves to be the final arbiters of our lives. They have forgotten that the essence of democracy is the right to govern ourselves.

Chief Justice John Roberts put it best at his confirmation hearing, when he described the role of a judge. ‘Judges and Justices are servants of the law,’ he said, ‘not the other way around. Judges are like umpires. Umpires don’t make the rules, they apply them … and I will remember that it’s my job to call balls and strikes and not to pitch or bat.’

Now that’s the type of Justice that I would appoint to the Court.

Make sure to read the rest of his speech here. From a social conservative standpoint, it really was phenomenal.

Posted on June 17th, 2007 by David
Filed under: Ron Paul 2008