The Romney Ryan campaign has issued a statement that they support abortion in cases of rape. The campaign released this statement.
The Romney campaign released a statement criticizing Missouri Republican Senate nominee Todd Akin: “Gov. Romney and Congressman Ryan disagree with Mr. Akin's statement, and a Romney-Ryan administration would not oppose abortion in instances of rape.
The Obama campaign issued their own statement in response, noting that the GOP is going to vote on the Human Life Amendment as part of the Republican Party Platform in advance of their convention.
The Obama campaign says in a statement: “While Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are working overtime to distance themselves from Rep. Todd Akin’s comments on rape, they are contradicting their own records. Mr. Romney supports the Human Life Amendment, which would ban abortion in all instances, even in the case of rape and incest. In fact, that amendment is a central part of the Republican Party’s platform that is being voted on tomorrow.”
Back in 2007 Mitt Romney said he would be 'delighted' to sign a bill outlawing all abortions nationally and it would be 'terrific' if there was such a consensus. (Those are bizarre word choices in a discussion about abortion, even for Mitt Romney. I wonder if it would be marvelous as well?) He gets so excited about the possibility he can barely contain himself and talks over moderator Anderson Cooper.
So Romney was pretty severely conservative back in 2007 but is now contradicting himself with this earlier history, and what his party is about to announce. Now he is not so severely conservative.
Perhaps it's a knee jerk response to the brouhaha flying around Todd Akins statements, that they intend to disavow at the convention? It's hard to keep up.