Is Romney readying for '08 bid by getting tougher on abortion?

BOSTON — Abortion. Stem cell research. Emergency contraception. Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican from a liberal state who is flirting with a 2008 presidential bid, has begun carefully redefining his positions on these hot-button social issues.

When he ran for governor in 2002, Romney pledged not to change the state's abortion laws, despite his personal opposition.

But his veto Monday of an emergency contraceptives bill and his comments in recent months have fueled speculation among critics that Romney is hardening his opposition to abortion and other sensitive social issues to gain support from GOP conservatives.

Romney says his anti-abortion views have "evolved and deepened" since he took office, colored in part by the 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 a commodity to be exploited," Romney wrote in an opinion piece in Tuesday's Boston Globe.

He also said he believes each state should decide whether to allow abortion, rather than having the "one size fits all" precedent of Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court case that legalized abortion.

Conservatives say Romney is taking a strong and consistent stand. Critics contend his evolution has more to do with politics than morality.

"I don't think I've ever seen a politician be as clumsy or transparent or patently dishonest in a presidential run-up as Gov. Romney," said Democratic consultant Jim Jordan. "I can't imagine him entering the presidential campaign with any credibility with either Republican moderates or hardcore conservatives."

Scott Reed, Republican consultant who ran Bob Dole's presidential race in 1996, said Romney's quick veto Monday of a bill that would expand access to emergency contraception and his op-ed piece explaining that veto will be "wildly popular with social conservatives, without appearing scary."

"What Romney did was a classic two-punch on a very important issue to social conservatives," Reed said.

Romney, who first drew the national spotlight when he took over leadership of the struggling 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games, has tried to carve out an image as a true conservative from a state long portrayed as liberal.

Massachusetts' Legislature is overwhelmingly Democratic, and Romney's first term as governor barely touched on the issues dear to social conservatives until recently.

In May, Romney vetoed legislation to expand stem cell research because it allowed the cloning of human embryos for use in stem cell experiments — a practice Romney said amounts to creating life in order to destroy it. The Legislature overrode the veto.

His veto of the emergency contraception measure is also likely to be overridden. That bill requires hospital emergency room doctors to offer the medication to rape victims, and would make it available without prescription from pharmacies.