

Noted flip-flopper and presidential candidate Mitt Romney is having to clarify his position on abortion. On Tuesday, after mansplaining to a lady reporter from the Des Moines Register about what women voters really care about, Romney had this to say: “There’s no legislation with regards to abortion that I’m familiar with that would become part of my agenda.” His campaign quickly corrected the record: “Governor Romney would of course support legislation aimed at providing greater protections for life.” And Romney himself awoke from his momentary amnesia and remembered that it’s 2012 and he’s not a moderate running in Massachusetts anymore. Yesterday he said: “I think I’ve said time and again that I’m a pro-life candidate and I’ll be a pro-life president. The actions I’ll take immediately is to remove funding for Planned Parenthood. It will not be part of my budget. And also I’ve indicated that I will reverse the Mexico City position of the president. I will reinstate the Mexico City policy which keeps us from using foreign aid for abortions overseas.” Cool, thanks for clarifying. Good thing nobody cares about Planned Parenthood.

I don’t care what the real Romney believes about abortion. And it almost doesn’t matter what he has to say about reproductive rights on any given day. After all, you can find a Romney that will support literally any position you hold. (Don’t believe me? Just try it.) The fact is that, if elected, Romney would, as he unequivocally stated yesterday, certainly “be a pro-life president.” There is simply no other way to be if you are elected as the leader of a party with a rabidly anti-choice platform. Romney couldn’t avoid the issue even if he truly wanted to. As Planned Parenthood’s Cecile Richards noted, there are at least two dozen pieces of legislation in Congress that would restrict abortion rights. There are judicial appointments to be made and executive orders to be signed and an extremist anti-choice base to be continually courted.

And pretty much the only thing we know for sure about Romney’s views–on really anything–is that he would follow party orders.