WASHINGTON (AP) - Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, seeking to dispel doubts about his conservative credentials, acknowledged Saturday that he's shifted his abortion views.
"On abortion, I wasn't always a Ronald Reagan conservative," Romney told a gathering of conservatives. "Neither was Ronald Reagan, by the way. But like him, I learned from experience."
During his 2002 campaign for Massachusetts governor, Romney said that while he personally opposed abortion, he would leave the state's abortion laws intact.
In his speech Saturday, he said he had had a change of heart after a discussion with a stem cell researcher.
As he has campaigned in early-voting primary states, Romney has also cast himself as a defender of traditional marriage.
During his dinner speech at the National Review Institute's Conservative Summit, the former governor said he was a strong opponent of a November 2003 state supreme court decision making Massachusetts the first state to legalize gay marriage.
"I opposed then, and I do now, gay marriage and civil union," he said. "I am proud of the fact that I and my team did everything within our power and within the law to stand up for traditional marriage."
Romney struck a more moderate tone during his 2002 campaign for governor and his unsuccessful 1994 Senate race against Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass. In a letter sent during the Senate race, Romney promised a gay GOP group that he would be a stronger advocate for them than Kennedy was.
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