MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. -- On a cold winter day that made it seem more like New Hampshire than South Carolina, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney picked up three key endorsements Monday in the state with the first southern presidential primary.
Romney, traveling with Republican U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint, spoke at a civic club meeting in Aiken before arriving in this Charleston suburb.
He was endorsed by former Gov. Jim Edwards, the first Republican elected governor in South Carolina since Reconstruction, former U.S. Rep. Tommy Hartnett and Republican National Committeewoman Cindy Costa.
"This is a remarkable group of people and their support means the world to me," said Romney, standing near a dock where a shrimp boat was tied up. "It doesn't mean I can sit back on my haunches and expect everything to happen ... we're going to do this together."
Later, Romney was asked again about his views on abortion, an issue important in a staunchly conservative state.
"Over the last multiple years, as you know, I have been effectively pro-choice," he said. "I never called myself that as a label but I was effectively pro-choice and that followed a personal experience in my extended family that led to that conclusion."
That family member was killed in an illegal abortion in the 1960s, Romney said.
Calling the issue "a very tender and sensitive subject" for women and all Americans, Romney said he has given the matter much thought.
Once, during a discussion with leaders from Harvard University about stem cell research, Romney said someone commented it's not really a moral issue because the embryos used are destroyed at 14 days.
"It struck me very powerfully at that point that the Roe v. Wade approach has so cheapened the value of human life that somebody could think it's not a moral issue to destroy embryos," Romney said.
He added every decision he made as governor "in a very liberal state has been on the side of favoring life," he said. "I am firmly pro-life."
Hartnett, who served three terms in Congress during the 1980s, said he has looked closely at the other potential presidential candidates.
"I see in many of them people whose ideas are tired, whose political philosophies are not in tune with the 21st century and whose stars are beginning to dim," he told a group of about 100 supporters.
Later, during the broadcast of an interview taped over the weekend for the ABC News program "Nightline," Romney agreed he was a devout Mormon but said: "I don't believe any campaign is going to focus on any particular religion; I think it's going to look at the heart and character of the people."
While no Mormon has ever been elected president, Romney highlighted the fact that other Mormons are in high office as he answered a question about what impact church directives might have on him in the White House.
"My church leadership had never tried in any way that I know of to ever suggest, certainly to me or the other leading politicians in the country like Harry Reid-- the leading Democrat in the nation is a Mormon -- the church doesn't try and tell him what to do and influence him. Again, when you take the oath of office, your highest responsibility is to follow the Constitution and the rule of law, and that's something to which I subscribe," he said.
South Carolina's other U.S. senator, Lindsey Graham, is backing Sen. John McCain of Arizona.
Romney has visited South Carolina frequently in recent months.
He spoke to Republican Party leaders in Columbia back in September and last June addressed a crowd of about 300 in heavily Republican Spartanburg County. He has visited at least twice since September to meet privately with supporters, a campaign spokeswoman said.
Romney planned a breakfast meet-and-greet at a Columbia restaurant Tuesday.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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