Patrick Pledges to be "Pro-Choice Governor
       Democratic gubernatorial candidate Deval Patrick on Tuesday pledged to be a “pro-choice governor” and criticized Gov. Mitt Romney for vetoing legislation expanding access to emergency contraception.
       “The Governor continues to play politics with a woman's right to choose,” Patrick said in a statement. “On Monday Governor Romney decided to veto emergency contraception legislation and today in his op-ed he changed his stand on an issue of fundamental privacy.  By doing so, he has betrayed the trust of the people of Massachusetts.  In fact, as a candidate in 2002, Gov. Romney pledged both to expand access to emergency contraception and to be a pro-choice governor.  It is time for Massachusetts to demand more leadership and fewer empty promises from its governor.  I pledge that I will be a pro-choice governor and I will defend a woman's right to access emergency contraception.”
       Patrick aides said he would have supported the legislation if he were governor. Romney vetoed a bill requiring all hospitals to make emergency contraception available to rape victims and to allow trained pharmacists to make the morning-after pill available to women and girls without a prescription.
       Romney said the bill “does not involve only the prevention of conception . . . the drug it authorizes would also terminate life after conception.” Then, in a Boston Globe op-ed piece on Tuesday, Romney made statements that led others to say he was targeting Roe v. Wade, the federal law protecting a women’s right to choose an abortion. "I understand that my views on laws governing abortion set me in the minority in our Commonwealth," Romney wrote. "I am prolife. I believe that abortion is the wrong choice except in cases of incest, rape, and to save the life of the mother. I wish the people of America agreed, and that the laws of our nation could reflect that view. But while the nation remains so divided over abortion, I believe that the states, through the democratic process, should determine their own abortion laws and not have them dictated by judicial mandate."
        The House and Senate are expected to override Romney’s veto.