As you know, Mitt Romney loves to brag about his time as Mormon Bishop when people question his ability to feel empathy toward regular people. It turns out that Bain Capital might not be the only dirty laundry Mitt Romney wishes to keep in a closet. In fact, The Huffington Post is reporting this morning that some disturbing revelations about Mitt Romney as Mormon Bishop will appear in a new upcoming book.
In this new book set to be released on January 17th, the authors Michael Kranish and Scott Helman recount the story of Peggie Hayes, a pregnant single mom who attended Romney's church back in 1983. According to Mrs Hayes, who was already mother to a young daughter from a previous relationship at the time, then Bishop Mitt Romney called for a meeting with her when he learned about her second pregnancy. During the meeting, Romney pressured her to give up her baby for adoption arguing that what the church wanted and she had to comply to the church's decision.
Vanity Fair published on its website an adaption of Kranish and Helman's book:
She earned some money while she was pregnant organizing the Romneys’ basement. The Romneys also arranged for her to do odd jobs for other church members, who knew she needed the cash. “Mitt was really good to us. He did a lot for us,” Hayes said. Then Romney called Hayes one winter day and said he wanted to come over and talk. He arrived at her apartment in Somerville, a dense, largely working-class city just north of Boston. They chitchatted for a few minutes. Then Romney said something about the church’s adoption agency. Hayes initially thought she must have misunderstood. But Romney’s intent became apparent: he was urging her to give up her soon-to-be-born son for adoption, saying that was what the church wanted. Indeed, the church encourages adoption in cases where “a successful marriage is unlikely.
I guess Mitt Romney was for or against women right to chose before being against it or for it. Remember that from 1994 to 2004, Mitt Romney ran in Massachusetts as champion of women rights and even secured the endorsement of Planned Parenthood in 2003 when he ran for governor. Eventually Mrs Hayes refused to give in to Romney's blackmail and decided to keep her baby.
Hayes was deeply insulted. She told him she would never surrender her child. Sure, her life wasn’t exactly the picture of Rockwellian harmony, but she felt she was on a path to stability. In that moment, she also felt intimidated. Here was Romney, who held great power as her church leader and was the head of a wealthy, prominent Belmont family, sitting in her gritty apartment making grave demands. “And then he says, ‘Well, this is what the church wants you to do, and if you don’t, then you could be excommunicated for failing to follow the leadership of the church,’ ” Hayes recalled. It was a serious threat. At that point Hayes still valued her place within the Mormon Church. “This is not playing around,” she said. “This is not like ‘You don’t get to take Communion.’ This is like ‘You will not be saved. You will never see the face of God.’ ” Romney would later deny that he had threatened Hayes with excommunication, but Hayes said his message was crystal clear: “Give up your son or give up your God.”
According to the book, when Mrs Hayes gave birth to her son months later, she tried to reach Romney in order for him to come to the hospital to confer a blessing on her baby. But "Compassionate" Mitt Romney never showed up.
Looking past their uncomfortable conversation before Dane’s birth, she called Romney and asked him to come to the hospital to confer a blessing on her baby. Hayes was expecting him. Instead, two people she didn’t know showed up. She was crushed. “I needed him,” she said. “It was very significant that he didn’t come.” Sitting there in the hospital, Hayes decided she was finished with the Mormon Church.
This new story, if true, once again shows us how Mitt Romney is willing to use his power and wealth to crush lives of people who are less powerful. Here you have Mitt Romney trying to used his position in order to dictate people's lives.
I guess for Mitt Romney only married couples are allowed to live the joy of parenthood.