Given Romney's desire to have the Supreme Court overturn Roe v Wade, it bears repeating that Romney also thinks that Griswold vs Connecticut was wrongly decided. Romney argues the Constitutional right to privacy should not actually exist--that states should have the power to decide if we can use contraception or not.
None of this is out of context. Here's the full transcript from the debate, with the money quote:
STEPHANOPOULOS: But you’ve got the Supreme Court decision finding a right to privacy in the Constitution.
ROMNEY: I don’t believe they decided that correctly. In my view, Roe v. Wade was improperly decided. It was based upon that same principle. And in my view, if we had justices like Roberts, Alito, Thomas, and Scalia, and more justices like that, they might well decide to return this issue to states as opposed to saying it’s in the federal Constitution.
As Romney points out, the decisions in Roe v Wade and Griswold v Connecticut were "based upon
that same principle". In other words, according to Mitt Romney, there is no Constitutional right to privacy. Nope. It's not there. Not for women. Not for GLBT people. Just for him and his tax returns.
Transcript of the video:
[text] What does Mitt Romney think about women's access to birth control?
[moderator] Governor Romney, do you believe that state's have the right to ban contraception, or is that trumped by a Constitutional right to privacy?
[Romney] Has the Supreme Court decided that states do not have the right to provide contraception?
[moderator] Yes, they have.
[Romney] look, I, I believe
[moderator] 1965. Griswold v Connecticut.
[text] On June 7, 1965, the Supreme Court ruled that married couples have a right to use birth control.
"The very idea [of searching marital bedrooms for contraception] is repulsive to the notions of privacy surrounding the marriage relationship." --Griswold v. Connecticut
[Romney] I don't believe they decided that correctly. And in my view if we had justices like Roberts, Alito, Thomas, and Scalia and more justices like that, they might well decide to return that issue to states as opposed to saying that it's in the federal Constitution.
[text] On birth control and women's health...Mitt Romney is wrong for women
