Mitt Romney's Son Signed 'Abortion' Clause In Surrogate Birth Contract

[mfcorey1]

Last edited Fri Sep 21, 2012, 11:17 AM - Edit history (2)

Read more: http://www.tmz.com

TMZ has learned Mitt Romney's son Tagg -- who had twins this year through a surrogate -- signed an agreement that gave the surrogate, as well as Tagg and his wife, the right to abort the fetuses in non-life threatening situations ... and Mitt Romney covered some of the expenses connected with the arrangement ... and it may boil down to an incredibly stupid mistake.

The twin boys -- David Mitt and William Ryder -- were born on May 4, 2012. We've learned Tagg and his wife Jen, along with the surrogate and her husband, signed a Gestational Carrier Agreement dated July 28, 2011. Paragraph 13 of the agreement reads as follows:

"If in the opinion of the treating physician or her independent obstetrician there is potential physical harm to the surrogate, the decision to abort or not abort is to be made by the surrogate."

[TwilightGardener]

1. I don't think the surrogate wants to die for Tagg to have kids. It's probably

a standard part of this type of arrangement--I would hope.

[beac]

4. And it will make fundie heads all over the land EXPLODE!!

Especially since Mitt PAID FOR part of this arrangement.

I am very glad the surrogate had that important life-protecting clause in the contract. I am EQUALLY glad that this exposes Mitt as an IOKIYAR faux-life hypocrite.

[kestrel91316]

18. Why did Mitt pay for it? Don't his children know how to ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY

for caring for themselves?????

[treestar]

24. +1

[beac]

25. Silly kestrel, this CLEARLY falls under the

"borrow it from your parents" bootstrap-exception clause!!

[treestar]

23. Exactly. The clause is fine and Tagg and Jen OK for accepting it BUT

the right wing fundies heads should explode. It should be against THEIR standards.

In fact, they are sometimes against in vitro on similar grounds, and should be against surrogacy by the same token. They want things to be as God decides - if God decides no children for you, one accepts that too. Unless one is not really sincere on that.

[get the red out]

2. That's perfectly reasonable

However many Republicans these days are anything but.

[Quantess]

3. This doesn't sound like a big deal to me.

We already know Romney has no inner convictions about anything that are not subject to change.

[beac]

8. Not a big deal to you, but likely a VERY big deal to fundie anti-choicers.

This confirms every suspicion they have of Mitt and is blatent enough that even their "we value life" pretzel logic can't twist this one away.

It may well drive them into the arms of Virgil Goode (if he's on their ballot) and/or to stay home on 11/06.

[nc4bo]

5. Some Republican Xianists, when it comes to the health of the mother,

STILL want to ban abortion and the woman's right to choose.

I bet Republicans just hate when the anti-choice laws they create contradict what they do.

[riderinthestorm]

6. Whew! So a 1%er is going to "allow" a 99%er to make her own decisions about her body!

Because they have a vested interest.

Rich people get access to abortions, but the rest of us won't.

And some pro-lifer - clearly they aren't adopting or fostering children. Nope, the Rmoneys want to force women to have children but don't step up and adopt or foster when it turns out you want a larger family.

[Indpndnt]

7. The link goes to "Buy American" website?

[Brother Buzz]

11. Someone lost the M

Try this link

http://www.tmz.com/

[Indpndnt]

16. Thanks! Much better.

[IllinoisBirdWatcher]

9. You missed the BIG issue.

The real killer for Romney is that he paid for this:

"Any decision to abort because of potential harm to the child, or to reduce the number of fetuses, is to be made by the intended parents."

Translation: Tagg and his wife, Jen, had the right to abort the fetuses if they felt they would not be healthy.

If they hadn't wanted twins, Tagg and Jen, NOT the biological mother, had the right to abort one of the fetuses.

If there were going to be birth defects, Tagg and Jen, NOT the biological mother, had the right to abort.

Everything Romney and the wingnuts claim is wrong.

Go figure.

[woodsprite]

14. I don't think they would have been allowed to go through with the procedure

unless they signed that contract. Other treatment centers have different contracts, but maybe this treatment center had a guarantee. Some do, believe it or not.

[sendero]

10. I believe in..

... "go for the jugular" politics, but I wouldn't touch this with a 10 foot pole.

I assume Mitt Jr is a grown man and he is responsible for his actions, not Mitt.

As for this making fundie heads explode, well maybe. I don't think the "no abortion no matter what" crowd is much interested in Romney to begin with, no would they find this surprising.

[nc4bo]

12. Every vote we can peel off doesn't count.

I'm done playing nice with these folks. Just done.

[woodsprite]

13. IMO, we need to leave this one alone.

It's not going to bode well for anyone involved to hound on this one, and it sounds petty compared to everything else that we have on how unfit he is to lead America.

I went through 4 yrs of increasingly invasive infertility treatments ending in a successful IVF procedure with a single frozen embryo, so I know what that whole business entails. I also know that our parents would have done anything for my husband and I to have had the opportunity to have the family we wanted, so I don't/can't fault the Romney's for that. For us, we were lucky that we had partial coverage through insurance (didn't tap our parents at all). The Romney's are lucky they had no money worries in regards to the procedure at all.

[riderinthestorm]

15. You do know that Tagg and his wife have 3 biological children already right?

For a family that's "pro-life", they skipped over adopting or fostering.

Then they signed a contract that stipulates that abortion must be part of the process if necessary.

I'm sorry you had difficulty conceiving. I'm so glad you finally got a child. I don't think the Rmoney's story needs to be avoided though.

[sammytko]

17. This is their second time using a surrogate - same one

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/05/mitt-romneys-eldest-son-has-twins-via-surrogate/

And i'm with you - what is wrong with adopting?

[nichomachus]

19. It's a Mormon thing

They think that there are million of "spirit children," waiting to be born and their goal is to get them born. This is why some Mormons have risked their lives to have children -- even after being warned not to. So adopting a kid who was already born wouldn't achieve the goal of getting the "spirit children" born.

[Indpndnt]

21. Maybe not, but what about the orphaned "spirit children" already born?

They aren't part of the plan? Or is it, once they're born, they're scorned?

[sammytko]

27. yeah, they baptize them after they are dead, why not adopt some and baptize while alive?

[Doctor_J]

30. wrongo

he's a liar, hypocrite, and a filthy piece of crap. this story enforces that.

As for your story, it might be pertinent if you were running for office on an anti-choice, personal responsibility platform. Since you're not, I don't see the correlation.

[gollygee]

20. It seems mean spirited to use this against Mitt Romney

I just don't like it. It's his son, not him, and we don't know all the details about why he wanted a surrogate. I read he already had kids, but we don't know what was going on. I personally can't go after someone for a phrase in a contract signed by his son under unknown circumstances.

[beac]

26. Did you miss the part where Mitt PAID for part of the arrangement...

putting him solidly in the middle of this do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do faux-life hypocrisy??

Did you notice that the language does NOT say the life of the surrogate has to be threatened and ONLY that she could be at risk of "physical harm" for her to request an abortion?? That doesn't even fall under the rare exceptions that some anti-choicers make.

Mitt paid for this and now he should answer why it's okay for his family and not for others.

And if he paid for something without reading the contract, then he is even a BIGGER business failure than we thought.

[cthulu2016]

22. This is a lot of nothin'

[beac]

29. It isn't.

It exposes Romney as a hypocrite to the core. Yes, WE already knew that and now his raging fundies know it too.

Mitt helped PAY FOR a contract that included "abortion-on-demand" as the anti-choicers would call it.

See: http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=1389897 and
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021389848#post26

[murray hill farm]

28. Why????

did they have a surrogate carry their children?

[Doctor_J]

31. Conceived via methods that Willard want to outlaw

Hypocrite.

[alcibiades_mystery]

32. Who cares?

This is dumb. We can beat these people on policy without this kind of nonsense.

Gossipy shit.