Romney, Ryan defend differences on abortion

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan found themselves dragged into a debate yesterday over hot-button social issues and answering for differences between their personal positions on abortion, just days before a national convention aimed at showing a unified Republican party.

The discussion lingered while President Barack Obama and Romney tangled from afar over issues like education and the deficit.

The GOP ticket dealt with a renewed focus on abortion following comments about "legitimate rape" from Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin that caused an uproar and generated demands from Romney and party leaders for the congressman to quit the race.

In New York Wednesday, Obama told a group of donors gathered in Alice Tully Hall that Akin "somehow missed science class" even though he sits on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. The president raised $3 million with the help of former Chicago Bulls player Michael Jordan and former Knicks Walt Frazier and Bill Bradley.

The questions over abortion overshadowed events for Romney and Ryan in the battleground states of Iowa, North Carolina and Virginia, three states Obama carried in 2008.

Earlier in the day, Obama rallied supporters in Nevada, the state with the nation's highest unemployment rate, 12 percent.

Since selecting his running mate, Romney has faced questions about how his policy positions differ from those espoused by Ryan, the architect of a controversial budget blueprint that would dramatically alter Medicare. Romney does not oppose abortion in cases of rape and incest or if it will save the mother's life, while Ryan does oppose abortion in cases of rape and incest.

Ryan, in an interview with a Pennsylvania TV station, emphasized Romney's role at the top of the ticket, saying he was proud of his own record on the social issue. "I stand by my pro-life record in Congress. It's something I'm proud of. But Mitt Romney is the top of the ticket and Mitt Romney will be president and he will set the policy of the Romney administration," he said.

Ryan defended a bill he co-sponsored in the House to ban federal funding for abortion permanently, except in cases of incest and "forcible" rape. That language, which was eventually changed, would have narrowed the exception for rape victims. Akin and 225 other members of the House, including 11 Democrats, also co-sponsored the bill.

Democrats have tried to steer the debate over abortion tactfully to appeal to female voters, including those living in hotly contested suburbs in battleground states such as Colorado, Florida, Ohio and Virginia.