Abortion

All four Republican presidential candidates criticized the Obama administration's birth control mandate during Wednesday night's debate but sharply disagreed over government's proper role on the issue of sex.

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum defended earlier remarks about "the dangers of contraception," saying he was concerned with sexual activity among young Americans.

"What we're seeing is a problem in our culture with respect to children being raised by children, children being raised out of wedlock, and the impact on society," he said. "We have a problem in this country. The family is fracturing."

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The Virginia House of Delegates passed a high-profile anti-abortion bill Wednesday after Republicans backed away from one of its most controversial requirements.

Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) backed away Thursday from a controversial proposal to require invasive ultrasounds before women can obtain abortions.

The original bill would have required some women to undergo a transvaginal ultrasound without having to give their consent for the procedure. Republicans offered a substitute that does not mandate the more-invasive procedure.

“Mandating an invasive procedure in order to give informed consent is not a proper role for the state,” McDonnell said in a statement. “No person should be directed to undergo an invasive procedure by the state, without their consent, as a precondition to another medical procedure.”

The House passed the modified bill over objections from some lawmakers who said it is still an infringement on women’s access to legal healthcare procedures.

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell is backing off his unconditional support for a bill requiring women to have an ultrasound before an abortion, The Washington Post reports.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is upset that Republicans won't allow her birth-control hearing to be televised, Politico reports.

The Obama administration is preparing new regulations on school vending machines, reports The New York Times.

The Alliance Defense Fund and Geneva College have filed a lawsuit against the health law's birth-control coverage mandate.

The American Heart Association launches a new online-only, free-access scientific journal: the Journal of the American Heart Association: Cardiovascular and Cerebrovascular Disease (JAHA).

The women are pushing back at Democrats' effort to frame the issue around women's health.

Rick Santorum supported abortion rights for most of his life before he ran for Congress and was a centrist on the issue in his early years in office, according to campaign documents obtained by The Huffington Post.

The tone of the documents and his comments on the subject are a far cry from the culture warrior persona Santorum developed in his years in the Senate, and threaten to undercut his image as a purist conservative. He has long opposed any legalized abortion including in cases of rape and incest, and has attacked rival Mitt Romney for flip-flopping on the same issue.

In 1995, according to The Huffington Post, Santorum told Philadelphia Magazine that he had been "basically pro-choice all my life, until I ran for Congress. ... But it had never been something I thought about."

In a position paper from Santorum's 1990 House campaign, he said that he would oppose banning abortion in cases of rape and incest, and that the issue requires "a sensitivity to the genuine concerns of both sides."

The revelations threaten to undercut his recent momentum and hurt him with the social conservatives who make up the core of his political base.

Romney faces a large trust deficit on the issue, as his switch on abortion occurred much more recently and publicly. This will make it difficult for him to attack Santorum on the matter, but it also means Republicans looking for a conservative alternative to Romney will have one more factor to weigh when looking at Santorum's record.

The candidates will debate in Arizona Wednesday night. If the issue comes up how Santorum handles it could affect his standing in the campaign.

Ave Maria University's president said the government has bullied religious institutions with the birth-control requirement for insurance plans.

"They're having a panel on women's health, and they don't have any women on the panel – duh!" Pelosi said.

Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) and more than 20 other House Republicans have proposed legislation that would cut federal funding to elementary and secondary schools that provide students with access to emergency contraception, like the morning-after pill.

The bill amends the General Education Provisions Act by adding a new section that limits federal funds to schools that either distribute or provide access to the morning-after pill or other contraception, which some see as causing abortions, or enter into contracts with other entities that provide this access.

Rep. Marsha Backburn (R-Tenn.) is taking the lead in asking Congress to double down in its investigation of Planned Parenthood.

In a letter to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), the Energy and Commerce Committee member is asking for a "full-scale series of congressional hearings to expose the damage Planned Parenthood has caused to our nation."

The letter comes after an anti-abortion-rights group issued a report on Tuesday that accuses the nation's largest abortion provider of "waste, abuse and potential fraud." The report is aimed at fueling calls for investigatory hearings by the House Energy and Commerce Oversight panel, which launched a probe into Planned Parenthood last year.

The GOP senator said Thursday that while he disagreed with the policy, the debate over the issue was overheated.