Mike Allen: You’ve made it clear in talking to conservatives that your conversion on the abortion issue was quite sincere. In office, what policies would you initiate to show that sincerity?
Governor Mitt Romney: “As governor of Massachusetts, for example, I had four pieces of legislation that came to my desk that related to the preservation of life. In each case, I came down on the side of respect for life. One was with regard to abstinence education in schools. One of the initiatives that my wife and I will lead is an effort help kids get through high school and get married before they have babies. There is an epidemic of out-of-wedlock births. Fortunately, it was cooled off by virtue of welfare reform, but there’s a lot more cooling off to do. And I will make a concerted effort to help kids wait to have babies until after they’re married.”
Governor Mitt Romney: “First of all, by telling kids what the consequences are of good decisions versus bad decisions. We are one of the most effective marketing and advertising nations in the world. People look at us and marvel at our communications capabilities. We need to use those same skills to help kids understand that if they have babies in high school, the prospects of them being able to go to college are not very good. The likelihood their child is going to get raised in poverty if they’re not married is multiple times greater than if they get married beforehand. So part is through education. There are other things we have to do to encourage marriage before babies. One is to look at our social programs and the fact that our social safety net penalizes marriage.”
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