Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney stopped in Iowa yesterday to push his economic and farm policies. However, his comments on abortion during an interview with the Des Moines Register overshadowed his speech to supporters at a rally in rural Van Meter (Madison County).

UPDATE: Added the fuller version of Romney’s remarks and Paul Ryan’s reaction below.

Romney wanted the story of yesterday’s Iowa stop to be his allegedly superior policies for farmers and the agricultural sector: permanent estate tax repeal, fewer regulations, and a new approach to trade. He even blamed President Barack Obama for the failure by House Republican leaders to bring up a new farm bill for a vote. Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey and Representative Tom Latham, the Republican seeking re-election in Iowa’s third Congressional district, also promoted Romney at the Van Meter rally.

The national media mostly ignored Romney’s speech to supporters, though, seizing on this comment to the Des Moines Register’s Jennifer Jacobs instead:

“There’s no legislation with regards to abortion that I’m familiar with that would become part of my agenda,” the GOP presidential candidate told The Des Moines Register’s editorial board during a meeting today before his campaign rally at a Van Meter farm.

But by executive order, not by legislation, he would reinstate the so-called Mexico City policy that bans U.S. foreign aid dollars from being used to do abortions, he said.

President Barack Obama dropped the policy on his tenth day in office, Romney said.

Jacobs apparently didn’t realize that the Mexico City policy is about money for family planning work in other countries; “No U.S. funds are currently being used to fund abortion overseas.”

But the most newsworthy point here is Romney backpedaling on having new abortion restrictions be part of his “agenda” if elected president. That’s hard to believe, given the “pro-life pledge” he published last year and his choice of Paul Ryan, who has a 100 percent anti-choice voting record in Congress.

Or maybe it’s not hard to believe, since Romney has been all over the map on abortion rights during his political career. His more than a half-dozen different positions on this issue range from supporting Roe v. Wade to saying states should decide the issue to saying he’d be “delighted” to sign a bill banning abortions everywhere in the country. During both of his presidential campaigns, he has said he would appoint U.S. Supreme Court justices who oppose Roe v. Wade.

Romney’s presidential campaign quickly went into damage control mode yesterday:

Asked to clarify the Republican nominee’s position, Romney spokesman Andrea Saul sent an email saying that Romney “is proudly pro-life, and he will be a pro-life president.” She also said that Romney “would of course support legislation aimed at providing greater protections for life.”

The Obama campaign has periodically highlighted a “woman’s right to choose” in television and radio advertising this year. This offers the president’s supporters another opportunity to portray Romney as a flip-flopper with no core beliefs, who will say anything in order to be elected. This should help the president more than casting Obama as the man who’ll save Big Bird.

I think that conservatives are so desperate to win an election that they won’t desert Romney over this blunder, but it has to be demoralizing for social conservatives to hear the Republican nominee dismiss a core issue as not “part of my agenda.”

UPDATE: The Register posted the full transcript from that part of the interview.

REGISTER: To what do you attribute the recent bounce with women voters?

ROMNEY: “Probably the appearance of my wife on more TV shows. She is my not so secret weapon and is very effective in speaking to people across the country. But in all seriousness, I also I think as we get closer to the election, there is more attention being paid to my actual positions as opposed to the positions that are being described by my opponent. Over the last several months, he has vastly outspent us on the air and has grossly distorted my views on almost every issue. I mean there’s an ad I don’t know whether it’s here in Iowa right now, but I’ve seen it in Virginia, or I’ve heard of it being shown in Virginia, rather, on a regular basis which says that I’m opposed to abortion even in cases of rape and incest and when the life of the mother is at risk. Well, that’s not true. That’s not my position. But they continue to run that and to send mailers out so I think part of the improvement I’ve seen in support with women has been that I’ve been able to address women directly, in the debates, in more ads of our own, in telephone town hall conferences we have that describe my actual views. That I think is earning me more support.”

REGISTER: Do you intend to pursue any legislation specifically regarding abortion?

ROMNEY: “There’s no legislation with regards to abortion that I’m familiar with that would become part of my agenda. One thing I would change, however, which would be done by executive order, not by legislation, is that I would reinstate the Mexico City policy, which is that foreign aid dollars from the United States would not be used to carry out abortion in other countries. It’s long been our practice here that taxpayer dollars are not to be used to fund abortion in this country. President Obama on the 10th day of his administration changed the Mexico City policy to say that abortion services were not prohibited in our foreign aid dollars. I would go back to the original so-called Mexico City policy.”

SECOND UPDATE: Ryan told reporters on October 10,

“Our position’s unified. Our position is consistent and hasn’t changed,” Ryan told a reporter outside a local ice cream shop here when asked to describe the position between his beliefs and his running mate’s.

“What is your position,” the reporter asked Ryan.

“I’m sure you will find that out in these debates,” Ryan responded.

Asked later whether he was “disappointed” by Romney’s statement that he would not pursue abortion-related legislation if elected president, Ryan said: “No, No. Look, no positions have changed, our position is very consistent.”

THIRD UPDATE: Kathie Obradovich did some spinning for Romney in her October 14 column for the Sunday Des Moines Register. In so doing, she affirmed the way Romney mischaracterized the Mexico City policy.

Romney met Tuesday with Register reporters and editors at a farm in Van Meter. He was asked whether he would “pursue any legislation” related to abortion. He wasn’t asked what he believes, or what he would sign. The question was what he would initiate and try to pass.

Romney, bless his heart, actually answered the question. “There’s no legislation with regards to abortion that I’m familiar with that would become part of my agenda,” he said. He added that he would pursue an executive order (technically not legislation) to reinstate a ban on using U.S. foreign aid dollars for abortions in other countries. He said the so-called Mexico City policy was lifted by President Barack Obama.

[…]

Romney has said he believes Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion, should be overturned. He’s also said he would cut funding to Planned Parenthood.

In the vice presidential debate on Thursday, U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan said the “policy of a Romney administration will be to oppose abortions with the exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother.” Ryan, who is more conservative on abortion than Romney, clearly reserved the right to adopt a different policy if he chooses to run for president someday.

None of that is inconsistent with what Romney said in Iowa. He can appoint pro-life justices or sign a budget cut or espouse a policy without proposing legislation.

Romney hasn’t tried to correct those who assumed he would lead the charge against legal abortion if he were elected. Splitting hairs would have killed his chances in the primary. But anyone who imagined him as a warrior for social change hasn’t been listening very carefully.