Governor of Virginia Shifts Position on Abortion Bill

The bill had drawn intense national attention in recent days, with a large protest by women’s health groups over the weekend and spoofs on left-leaning television shows.

In a political year that was suppposed to be all about the economy, this was the second instance in a month in which a public outcry  organized in part by women’s health advocates through social media caused a reversal on the issue of abortion. 

The governor’s decision not to support the bill capped several days of brinkmanship in which opponents of the measure lobbied furiously against it, galvanizing opposition by drawing on the image of male lawmakers mandating a procedure that requires inserting a probe into the vagina. One Democrat was prompted to denounce it as a “rape” bill.

Opponents presented what they said were 33,000 signatures protesting the measure. At the same time, the mostly Republican supporters in the legislature kept putting off debate on the measure, raising suspicions that the governor might be balking.

Finally, on Wednesday afternoon, Mr. McDonnell, a rising star in the Republican Party who is often talked about as a candidate for vice president, told Republican delegates to make changes that softened the requirements in the legislation. Some political analysts speculated that the decision was made with an eye to a broader national audience that might not look favorably on the passage of such a conservative bill.

This month the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation yielded to pressure by affiliates and women’s rights advocates and reversed its decision to largely end decades of partnership with Planned Parenthood.

In Virginia, in a written statement issued minutes before the House of Delegates was to debate the bill on Wednesday afternoon, Mr. McDonnell said that after discussion with doctors, lawyers and legislators, he had concluded that amendments were needed. He called for changes stipulating that the ultrasound be abdominal rather than vaginal. A doctor would be required to offer the next level of ultrasound, most often vaginal, but a woman would be free to reject it.

“Mandating an invasive procedure in order to give informed consent is not a proper role for the state,” the governor said in the statement.

The Family Foundation, a strong backer of the ultrasound bill, made reference to the Komen decision in a note to supporters blasting Mr. McDonnell’s reversal, saying that it was “extremely disappointed in this outcome,” particularly, it said, “given the strong pro-life credentials of this governor.”

The change — which passed the House in a vote of 65 to 32 — softens the bill considerably, but did not abolish the requirement that women have an ultrasound. If it is signed into law, Virginia would become the 10th state to require such procedures, though the requirement has been stayed by court rulings in two states, Oklahoma and North Carolina.

Specifically, the bill’s new wording would require a doctor to offer the woman a different type of ultrasound if the fetus is not viewable through an abdominal screening, but not require her to have one.

That opponents of the bill were successful in getting the language softened was a major success for them, particularly considering that vaginal ultrasounds are often administered before abortions anyway. A spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood said the group routinely includes ultrasounds “as part of the thorough medical practice of abortion care,” and gives the woman the option of viewing the image. But the group said a legal requirement that women undergo such a screening was politically motivated and “is the very definition of government intrusion.”

Erik Eckholm and Jennifer Preston contributed reporting.

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In Michigan Race, Santorum Shifts to Talk of Jobs

He heads into Michigan, which votes on Feb. 28, with solid support among conservative voters. Two new polls, by Pew and Gallup, released on Monday showed that Mr. Santorum had pulled even nationwide with Mitt Romney, who leads in the fight for delegates and who, as recently as a month ago, was leading Mr. Santorum by a margin of two to one in both those polls.

Mr. Santorum, a former senator from Pennsylvania, has been buoyed by strong backing from evangelical voters and Tea Party members, the Pew poll said. They came out heavily for him last week in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri, giving him important victories that put the wind at his back.

But as he finds himself on the defensive over his positions on social issues, including a book in which he blames “radical feminists” for scorning stay-at-home mothers, he faces a challenge in shifting from the culture wars, which have galvanized his base, to the economic front in an attempt to expand his base.

On Thursday, Mr. Santorum is scheduled to address the Detroit Economic Club, and aides said he would weave together his proposals and present them for the first time as a single, broad blueprint for promoting growth and bringing back jobs.

The goal is to compete with Mr. Romney on the issue that Michigan voters, and others, say matters to them the most. Mr. Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts and a private equity executive at Bain Capital, has based his campaign on his economic know-how and business acumen.

“The economy and jobs and unemployment are all that anybody talks about in Michigan, and Santorum needs to talk about them, too,” said Bill Ballenger, editor of a political newsletter called Inside Michigan Politics.

Mr. Santorum has been able to advance this far in part because of voter dissatisfaction with other candidates but also because the other candidates have not attacked him with the full force of their resources.

That is starting to change, and the media, too, is examining him with more scrutiny as he moves to the head of the pack. On Sunday, for example, he faced questions about statements in a book he wrote in 2005 saying that “radical feminists” had devalued women who chose motherhood over going into the work force. He also had to clarify remarks he made Thursday about his opposition to women serving in combat.

As he campaigned in previous states, Mr. Santorum addressed various aspects of the economy. But his overriding message has been that the nation cannot have a strong economy without strong families, and he has focused on the social and cultural challenges that families face. For example, Mr. Santorum, a father of seven, has proposed tripling the income tax deduction for children (a move that critics say could cost the Treasury billions of dollars a year).

He has also emphasized his blue-collar roots and refers frequently to his grandfather, who came from Italy to work in the coal mines of Pennsylvania. Those roots, he says, will help him win blue-collar votes in Rust Belt states like Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, all of which are likely to be major swing state battlegrounds in the fall.

The heart of Mr. Santorum’s economic plan is to revive the nation’s manufacturing base. He would do that by eliminating taxes on American-based manufacturers and on profits gained from overseas if they are reinvested on plants and equipment in the United States. He would also do away with a raft of regulations.

“We’re not conceding anything to Romney on the economic front,” said John Brabender, a senior Santorum adviser.

Michigan was expected to be a relatively straightforward victory for Mr. Romney, who was born and raised in the state. His father, George, became chief executive of American Motors and later governor of the state. Mr. Romney, in his unsuccessful first run for president in 2008, won the Michigan primary.

But in that race, Mr. Romney was perceived as the conservative, compared with Senator John McCain of Arizona, and this time, he is perceived as the moderate, compared with Mr. Santorum. Surveys of voters leaving polling places in 2008 showed that 39 percent of those voting in the Republican primary described themselves as evangelical or born-again Christians.

“Michigan has this reputation of being moderate, with Republicans like George Romney,” Mr. Ballenger said. “But it is one of the strongest right-to-life states in the country.”

Mr. Santorum continues to face questions about whether he will have the money to answer the expected attacks from his opponents; Mr. Romney has already accused him of being a big spender and a Washington insider.

The Santorum campaign plans to start advertising on Michigan television this week. The “super PAC” that backs him, the Red, White and Blue Fund, is polling in the state now to determine whether and how much to invest there, said Stuart Roy, a spokesman for the fund.

“Michigan is very enticing,” Mr. Roy said, not only because it allocates its delegates proportionally, so even coming in second ensures delegates, but because it is Mr. Romney’s home state.

Still, he said, the fund did not want to spend all of its resources in Michigan and not have enough for Super Tuesday, March 6, when 10 states vote. Moreover, he said, it had to consider that going negative against Mr. Romney would undoubtedly start to erode Mr. Santorum’s own high favorability ratings.

Mr. Brabender from the Santorum campaign said that Mr. Santorum’s recent success had raised the stakes and that Michigan would give him a platform unlike anything he had experienced so far.

“Having the megaphone means everything we say is more amplified,” Mr. Brabender said, “but also, everything is more amplified.”

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