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Romney surrogate says Roe v. Wade won't be overturned
Former Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) told voters in the crucial swing state of Ohio Monday that Roe v. Wade is not in danger of being overturned.
Coleman, a surrogate for Mitt Romney, is Jewish and opposes abortion rights. He made his comment during a town hall with Jewish voters in Beachwood, a suburb of Cleveland.
"The reality is that choice is an issue for a lot of people, an important issue. President Bush was president eight years; Roe v. Wade wasn’t reversed. He had two Supreme Court picks; Roe v. Wade wasn’t reversed. It's not going to be reversed," Coleman said.
Abortion has been front and center during the 2012 race for the White House. Coleman is an adviser to Romney, who has pledged to govern as a "pro-life president" and said he'd like to see the Supreme Court reverse Roe v. Wade.
The divisive 1973 decision gave U.S. women abortion rights and is anathema to conservatives who believe life begins at conception.
In recent interviews, Romney has described a middle path on reducing access to abortion. He has said the United States is not ready for a constitutional amendment that bans the procedure, but that Roe v. Wade should be overturned to give elected officials the ability to decide based on their constituents' beliefs.
"It is my preference that would return to the states and to the people and their elected representatives the issue of abortion as opposed to having the federal government impose, the Supreme Court impose, its view on a one-vote majority," Romney told the Columbus Dispatch earlier this month.
President Obama, meanwhile, has said there's no doubt a Romney presidency would spell the end of Roe.
"Gov. Romney has made clear that's his position," he recently told Rolling Stone. "Typically, a president is going to have one or two Supreme Court nominees during the course of his presidency, and we know that the current Supreme Court has at least four members who would overturn Roe v. Wade. All it takes is one more for that to happen."
