Romney Accused of Birth Control Flip-Flop

The Obama and Santorum campaigns cried "flip-flop" yesterday after Mitt Romney took both sides on a Senate bill rolling back a requirement for employer health plans to cover birth control. "I’m not for the bill, but look, the idea of presidential candidates getting into questions about contraception within a relationship between a man and a women, husband and wife, I’m not going there," Romney said when asked about the Blunt amendment. He later said he had misunderstood the question, and was definitely in favor of the amendment, NPR reports.

"Of course, I support the Blunt amendment. I thought he was talking about some state law that prevented people from getting contraception," said Romney, referring to the reporter who questioned him. But the Obama campaign wasn't buying his explanation. "In one hour, Mitt Romney showed why women don’t trust him for one minute," a spokeswoman said. "It took little more than an hour for him to commit his latest flip-flop. Even worse, he ended up on the wrong side of an issue of critical importance to women." A Santorum campaign spokesman said Romney's "gut reaction" to the question should be no surprise, given his "liberal record" on the issue. The amendment is expected to fail a Senate vote today. (More Blunt amendment stories.)