Why it Matters that Tagg Romney's Surrogacy Agreement Was Pro-Choice

This May, Mitt Romney’s son Tagg and his wife Jennifer became the proud parents of two beautiful twin boys with the help of a surrogate. And today, TMZ revealed that — gasp — the agreement they made with the surrogate gave the woman carrying their children the option to terminate the pregnancy for pretty much any health reason. Is this any of our business? Well, no. And yes.

According to TMZ, Tagg and Jennifer employed the same surrogate they used in 2009 to carry their twins David Mitt and William Ryder Romney to term. Unlike their child born in 2009, however, this time around, their surrogacy agreement contained some pretty pro-choice language—

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.

So, basically, if there’s any possibility that this could physically harm the woman carrying the twins, she and she alone has the power to choose to terminate.

On one hand, what Tagg, Jennifer, and their surrogate decided was best for their families should be a private matter and not up for public debate. But Tagg’s father, and the twins’ grandfather, is running for President on a platform that’s would make it a public debate — an ideology so extreme that it’s impractical for his own son. The Romney/Ryan ticket officially believes that the only reason abortion should be okay is in case of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother. And the GOP platform officially believes that there’s no reason to abort except to save a woman’s life. In either scenario, the set of circumstances that made surrogacy a non-terrifying thing for women would diminish, and Romney’s own grandsons may never have been born.

What Tagg Romney has chosen to do within his family is, in technical terms, his beeswax. But what Mitt Romney wants for all women could significantly diminish the quality of life for all Americans. Including Mitt Romney.

[TMZ]