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Breaking! Romney attended Planned Parenthood house party in 1994

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A few months back, you may recall, there was a little dust-up over a $150 contribution to Planned Parenthood that was drawn on Mitt and Ann Romney’s joint checking account in 1994.  ABC News broke the story, and it quickly made the rounds.  But, we were told at the time, it was Ann’s contribution, not Mitt’s.

[Romney spokesman Kevin Madden] said the check was written from the Romneys’ joint checking account, but she signed it and the contribution came from her, Madden said. Mitt Romney has not donated to the group, Madden said.

ABC quoted Madden as saying that “[t]he governor has not donated to Planned Parenthood or abortion-rights groups.”  Furthermore, Mitt himself said,

“Her contributions are for her and not for me,” Romney said before a campaign appearance in Iowa. “Her positions are not terrible relevant to my campaign.”

Madden claimed that Ann had no idea why she wrote this check.

Romney spokesman Kevin Madden said Ann Romney does not remember whether it was a straight donation to the abortion rights group, which supports abortion rights, or whether she wrote the check as an admission fee for an event. “Since it was so long ago, Ann has no information of the circumstances,” he said.

In fact, Romney spokesman Madden told ABC, Mitt might not even have known about the donation.

Madden said he did not know whether the former governor was aware of the donation, but he noted that Romney had been publicly committed to upholding a woman’s right to an abortion until late 2004.

And yet, there’s Mitt at a Planned Parenthood house party.  I spoke this morning to Ms. Gamble to confirm the circumstances of the photograph.  She said that this photo was taken at a house party — a fundraiser — for Planned Parenthood of Massachusetts, held in June of 1994, at a private home in Cohasset.  She explained that Planned Parenthood held (and continues to hold) lots of events like this, where people are invited to meet ‘n’ greet, and to hear about Planned Parenthood’s work.  According to Ms. Gamble, both Mitt and Ann Romney were present at this event.

Ms. Gamble further explained that these events are fundraisers, and that invitees are asked to contribute to Planned Parenthood either in advance of or after the event.  And, she told me, Ann Romney’s $150 donation to Planned Parenthood was “related to” this event.

So, according to Ms. Gamble, Ann Romney wrote a $150 check to Planned Parenthood in order to attend this house party (though I don’t know whether the check was written before or after the party took place), and both Mitt and Ann were there.  I can’t tell from the news articles about the check whether Mitt was ever asked if he attended any fundraising events for Planned Parenthood.  Perhaps that question ought to be raised now.

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  2. To the Romney’s $150.00 is equivalent to me tossing a penny in the cup (a Canadian penny at that).

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    p>I’m inclined to think that Ann Romney was merely being polite to the host by writing a check.
    Were she a true believer, the amount would have been rather more substantial.  

    • It doesn’t matter what $150 meant to the Romneys, geo999.  What matters is how many babies Planned Parenthood were able to kill with that money.  In their own new adopted parlance, the Romneys are baby killers by commission.  

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      p>The highly religious faction of the anti-choice crowd is happy to believe that Romney really has changed his views on choice, because they’re all about converting people and are enormously flattered and vindicated when conversions ostensibly happen.  Romney is like an “ex-gay“.  He has fooled himself and/or those he desperately wishes to please that he has changed.  But the truth of who he is and what he really believes will inevitably come out.

  4. …that at that time, 1994, the Mass. Legislature still refused to allow the coverage of women’s contraception as medication.

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    p>That $150 would have bought one IUD, +/-.

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    p>Planned Parenthood is more a contraception distribution organization than an abortion rights one – remember Bill Baird?  Margaret Sanger?

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    p>I’ve given them money myself for that purpose, pre-legalization under Finneran – to allow young women who can’t afford birth control to have it.

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    p>BTW – his attendance is only implied – do you HAVE a source other than the partisan Ms. Gamble that said he was there for the event, or just pick up or dropping off Ann?  That LOOKS like Polly Logan in the red sweater….

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    p>David – let’s see some 17 yr. old snaps of you!

    • Yah, I’m sure Mitt had just dashed in to pick up Ann, and stopped to chat with Nicki while the car was running — because he had nothing better to do in the midst of a US Senate campaign.  Honest to God, PP.

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      p>And as for “I’ve given them money myself” — sure, but you’re pro-choice, PP!  Is this so complicated?

      • And Mitt has to go pick up Anne at a Planned Parenthood meeting. “But I need the Car on Saturday to drop the Boys off at practice!”

      • …solicitations for a looooonnnngg time.  And in 1994, it was about helping young women afford birth control.  I cannot remember abortion counseling even being raised as an issue in solicitation letters until GWB was elected – and certainly not while Clinton was President!

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        p>Due to abortion rights frenzy since 2000, people have all but forgotten that the PURPOSE of PLANNED Parenthood was/is contraception distribution.

            • that said “to be used for birth control only”.  you know as well as i do that donations are used however the organization sees fit.  nice try.  keep ’em coming.  

            • that Ann Romney was unaware that Planned Parenthood strongly supported abortion rights, and that Planned Parenthood clinics provided abortion services, in 1994.

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              p>I mean, come ON, PP.  Romney has been forced to concede that he was “effectively pro-choice” (whatever that means) in 1994.  The issue here is whether he attended a Planned Parenthood fundraiser, and the photo says he did.  There’s another issue as to whether he was totally forthcoming about Ann’s check when it came to light back in May; I’ll let others figure that one out.

            • …is not the point.  The point is that Mitt lied, during his active campaign, to ABC news.  He knew about the donation which was in part for his benefit because he went to the party while running for the senate.  Affirmative lie and a lie of ommission.  Two for the price of one.  The man can’t be trusted to spell his name correctly.  The apoligia chorus grows more ridiculous by the day.

          • If Planned Parenthood wasn’t, in addition to the services you mentioned above, performing abortions in their MA clinics, how did John Salvi come to murder two of their abortion-providing doctors?

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            p>Peter Porcupine, your efforts to defend Romney here are looking embarrassingly desperate.  

            • That I don’t get ripped apart for being against gay marriage until 2007.  

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              p>Better to change and be for social justice and fairness to all people (and not just the post-birth crowd) then to be wrong all your life.

              • with PP’s fabrications that donations to Planned Parenthood in 1994 couldn’t have been used to perform abortions.

                • PP’s fabrications that donations to Planned Parenthood in 1994 couldn’t have been used to perform abortions.

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                  p>I said that their solicitations from that era did not mention abortion.  Not that they didn’t perform them.

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                  p>Perhaps David can call back Ms. Gamble and ask her – was her house party an abortion party?  Or a birth control party?

                • so you’re saying then that Ann Romney was so isolated from society that she didn’t know about PP abortions at least via the Salvi murders?  while her husband was actively campaigning as a pro-choice candidate?  is she ever allowed outside?  shall we call protective services?

                • In the context of a discussion of a Planned Parenthood-developed sex ed course, I commented that PP is a culture war combatant on the abortion-rights issue, and was thoroughly lambasted from the left –though not by you– that PP is really about contraception and education, and involved in the abotion issue only secondarily as a health care provider.

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                  p>I disagreed then and agree with you now; sucking up to PP is a good way to polish up some pro-choice credentials.

              • …you are running against someone who was for gay marriage since 1995 you will deserve the criticims in the context of your campaign.  Our actions and beliefs have consequences.  I want to vote for the person on the cutting edge, not who came around when the worm began to turn.

            • PP has not so much defended Mitt as she has shared personal experience with Planned Parenthood.

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              p>She certainly made no claim that Planned Parenthood did not provide abortion services in the 90’s – just that it was not a cornerstone of their fund raising appeals.

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              p>PP and I are not in total sync on this issue, so I have no reason to chime in here other than to point out that, quite honestly Laurel, it is your rhetoric on this thread that has been somewhat hyperbolic and desperate sounding.

              • Are you really claiming that PP isn’t defending Mitt at every opportunity in virtually every relevant thread?  It is to laugh!

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                p>You are right that she has been careful to avoid the obvious and admit that PP provided abortion services in the 1990s.  That would kill her argument, and so she has studiously avoided answering such direct questions.

                • does your computer edit stuff randomly?  I’m not seeing it.  

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                  p>I mean, be honest the       didn’t      with the ___   popsicle  ”’*** planned paren<><>                  alligator.  Come on, for real.  

                • if i’ve made a mistake (possible), then document and explain the truth to me.  are you game?  do you find it credible that Ann Romney was not aware that Planned Parenthood provided abortions at the time she wrote that check?  the content of planned parenthood mailings of the day is irrelevant if we are to believe that Ann Romney has a brain in her head and is in control of her checkbook.

                • that PP denied planned parenthood didn’t provide abortions in 1994?  Not possible, she didn’t say that.  

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                  p>Ann Romney:  She knew exactly what was going on.  The Romney’s were pro-choice til a few years ago.  I haven’t heard them denying it.  

                • Are you really claiming that PP isn’t defending Mitt at every opportunity in virtually every relevant thread?

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                  p>Did I make such a claim? Where?

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                  p>You’re off the rails here, kiddo. =^O

                • I guess what we have here is a forest for the trees sort of thing.  If you want to focus on this thread in isolation from all others, who am I to stop you.  But I will point it out.

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                  p>As for “kiddo”, patronizing wordplay will not win you any arguments.

                • …you may presume that my comments refer only to the topic under discussion.
                  Lifting my words out of context will not win you any arguments.

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                  p>I retract “kiddo”, and humbly apologize.

                • i see the context as a poster’s history on the blog, you see it as a particular thread (did i get that right?).  in the future, i will try to remember that we have this different definition of context.

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                  p>apology happily accepted.

                • I am inclined to say “systemic” simply because much of the contents of this thread is similar to the product of the bovine digestive system.

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                  p>Evidently, Mitt’s “re-framing” of his flips and flops as a “come to Jesus” moment of conversion doesn’t work on atheists, who must make up a vast portion of the voters in your average Republican primary.

    • Promoter of race hygiene and euthanizing those who are genetically unfit? Planned Parenthood should do what Romney with Larry Craig and just pretend she never existed, lol – If they haven’t done so already. “Margaret who?”

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