Romney criticized for not signing anti-abortion pledge

WASHINGTON, June 21 (UPI) -- The head of an organization that produced an anti-abortion pledge for GOP candidates to sign said she thinks former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney misread it.

Marjorie Dannenfelser of the Susan B. Anthony List said Romney's refusal to join five other GOP primary contenders in signing the pledge was disappointing, The Boston Globe reported Tuesday.

"I think there's only one way of looking at it, and that is not signing it revealed a weakness in conviction," she said. "I don't think there's any other way of looking at it."

Romney explained on a conservative Web site that his interpretation of the pledge was that it required cutting off federal funds to hospitals.

It requires signers to "defund Planned Parenthood and all other contractors and recipients of federal funds with affiliates that perform or fund abortions."

Dannenfelser said Romney was misreading the pledge because it does not require a ban on funds for hospitals.