GREENVILLE, S.C. — Mitt Romney was noticeably absent from Wednesday’s pro-life forum here, and event organizers were noticeably miffed.
The Romney campaign told event organizers that the former Massachusetts governor had a scheduling conflict, but they noted that he also had a scheduling conflict during a similar forum in Iowa.
The forum was organized by the national right-to-life group Personhood USA. Its president noted twice before the event started that all the candidates had been invited to attend and sign the group’s pro-life pledge. Romney has declined both.
Instead, he spent the evening at a rally in Irmo, S.C.
The four not-Romneys — Rick Perry, Ron Paul, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich — played up their pro-life bona fides, highlighting their past accomplishments on the issue.
A conversational Perry, the governor of Texas, noted how he had pressed the Texas legislature to defund Planned Parenthood and said that Romney’s change of heart on the issue of abortion was one of “political convenience.”
Gingrich, the former House speaker, warned that the greatest sin is making oneself greater than God, which he believes that some scientists are doing with stem cell experimentation.
Santorum, the former senator from Pennsylvania, fresh off a string of appearances with the Duggar family, told the crowd that science is “not a ethics-free zone of life.”
Lastly, Paul, a Republican representative from Texas who participated by satellite feed, talked about his his experience as a doctor that led him to be pro-life and advocated a states-rights solution to banning abortion.