Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan changes abortion stance

Susan Davis | USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, once an anti-abortion advocate, announced in a Wednesday op-ed that his views have shifted over a 14-year political career and he now supports abortion rights for women.

"I have come a long way since being a single, 26-year-old state senator, and I am not afraid to say that my position has evolved as my experiences have broadened, deepened and become more personal," Ryan wrote in the Akron Beacon Journal. "I have come to believe that we must trust women and families — not politicians — to make the best decision for their lives."

Ryan, a Catholic, was previously part of a small group of congressional Democrats who opposed abortion rights and were forceful public advocates on the issue.

Outside groups that oppose abortion rights once embraced Ryan as a potential rising star for the movement, but in recent years his positions in support of contraception access and opposition to cutting funding for Planned Parenthood made him fall out of favor with such groups. In 2009, for example, Democrats for Life of America removed Ryan from their national advisory board although he still opposed abortion rights at the time.

Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards praised Ryan's "honesty and courage" in a statement. "Congressman Ryan joins the overwhelming majority of Americans who want women to have access to abortion and don't want politicians to interfere in women's personal medical decisions," she said.

Ryan's conversion comes as he is mulling a potential Senate bid against Ohio GOP Sen. Rob Portman next year. "We're certainly looking very closely at it," Ryan told CQ/Roll Call, a Capitol Hill publication, in December.

Portman had a similar conversion on another social issue: same-sex marriage. In March 2013, Portman's opposition to same-sex marriage changed in part due to his son, Will, who is gay. "I have come to believe that if two people are prepared to make a lifetime commitment to love and care for each other in good times and in bad, the government shouldn't deny them the opportunity to get married," Portman wrote in a Columbus Dispatch op-ed.