DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz released the following statement on the Romney campaign’s failure during a press call today to take a position on whether or not Mitt Romney supports the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which calls for equal pay for equal work for women:

“Today’s radio silence by Mitt Romney’s campaign aides when asked if their boss supports equal pay for equal work for women in this country is utterly shocking.  The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which goes to the heart of the equal pay issue by giving women the power to challenge discrimination where they work, was the very first bill that President Obama signed into law.  And that was no coincidence – for the President, equal pay for equal work has always been a no-brainer.  But this isn’t just about women.  President Obama knows that equal pay for equal work is at the heart of economic security for millions of working families.  It’s about growing the economy by growing the middle class, and giving all Americans a fair shot and a fair opportunity to succeed.

“Meanwhile, the Romney campaign can’t even confidently articulate Mitt Romney’s position on supporting basic fairness for women in this country.  On a question that shouldn’t even require a millisecond of hesitation, Romney’s aides responded with a deafening six-second silence followed by, ‘We’ll get back to you on that.’  Mitt Romney’s spokesperson later tried to pivot by saying Romney isn’t interested in changing current law – but that’s not the question.  What voters deserve to know is this: if a bill to repeal the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act were in front of a President Romney, would he veto it or sign it?  Or, had he been President in 2009, would he have signed it?  Based on Mitt Romney’s continued attacks on women’s health and his extreme positions on so many other issues affecting women and their families, women voters have every reason to be skeptical.  And the Romney campaign’s appalling fumble on this fundamental question makes the critical choice facing voters in this election all the more clear.”

This afternoon on a press conference call with reporters, Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz highlighted the damaging movement to put “personhood” amendments on the ballot in several states and Mitt Romney’s endorsement of the policy. Romney, who as a candidate for office in Massachusetts vowed he would protect a woman’s right to choose, now favors an amendment that would ban abortions even in cases of rape, incest and life of the mother and ban many forms of birth control.

On the call, Wasserman Schultz called out Romney for his practice of adopting beliefs in exchange for support even when it comes to the most extreme attack on a woman’s right to choose in a generation. To American women, their reproductive health and choice is an intensely personal and private issue between themselves, their families and their doctors. To Mitt Romney, it’s just another issue to navigate around to score political points and win an election, she said:

“For the vast majority of Americans, including people on both sides of the abortion issue, this is an extreme and radical step. And it’s the latest example of just how out of touch the Republican Party has become. What Republicans should be concerned about is working with President Obama and Democrats across the country to help create jobs; not creating more ways to put women’s health at risk. We’re seeing support for this dangerous approach from top leaders in the Republican Party including Republican frontrunner Mitt Romney. The same Mitt Romney who—today the Washington Post reported—in 2002 while seeking pro-choice activist support for governor promised that in Massachusetts he would protect a woman’s right to choose. The same Mitt Romney who told these same women that he had national ambitions and that he would work to moderate the national Republican Party’s hardline anti-choice views. As we’ve seen far too often from Mitt Romney, he is using this issue like so many others: to score political points and win an election. It’s clear that depending on the audience he is talking to and the office he’s running for, Mitt Romney’s been for choice and then against it. And now Romney’s committed to overturning Roe v. Wade, and he supports such amendments that define a life as beginning at the moment of conception.”