"I indicated I wouldn't change abortion laws and I won't violate that promise," he added.
The debate stretches back to 2002, when Romney, then a Republican candidate for governor, answered "yes" on a candidate questionnaire distributed by NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts that asked whether he would support increased access to emergency contraception.
During the same campaign, Romney also promised not to alter the state's abortion laws.
Those two promises clashed when the Massachusetts House and Senate approved the emergency contraception bill.
"He went back on what he supported on the questionnaire by returning from vacation to veto a piece of legislation that would ensure broader access for emergency contraception," said Rose MacKenzie, director of policy for NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts. "Emergency contraception is not the same thing as abortion."
The bill required hospital emergency room doctors to offer the medication to rape victims, and made the pills available without prescription from pharmacies. A provision that exempted Catholic hospitals wasn't included in the final bill.
The medication is a hormone in pill form which, when taken after unprotected sex, prevents ovulation, stops the egg from being fertilized by sperm or stops a fertilized egg from attaching itself to the uterus wall.
It is most effective when taken within 72 hours of intercourse.
The debate was so contentious that Romney's hand-picked running mate, then-Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey, publicly broke with him and urged him to sign the bill.
Romney instead vetoed the bill at the end of July, 2005. Less than two months later the Massachusetts House and Senate easily overrode the veto.
Romney would try one more time to carve out an exemption for the state's Catholic hospitals, a move that would briefly throw the future of the law into chaos.
In December, 2005, just a week before the new law was to take effect, Romney's public health commissioner announced that Catholic and other privately run hospitals could be exempted from the emergency contraception law, pointing to an older law that barred the state from forcing private hospitals to dispense contraceptive devices or information.
Romney initially agreed, saying that while he personally believed hospitals should be required, at the least, to provide information about emergency contraception to rape victims, the new law couldn't supersede the old law.
"We have to follow the law," he said.
The new policy didn't last long.
Less than 24 hours after defending the proposed change, Romney scrapped the push to exempt private hospitals. He had come under intense pressure from women's groups, Democrats, the state attorney general and Healey.
Romney said that a fresh analysis by his legal counsel concluded that the new law in fact superseded the old law, and that all hospitals would now be required to offer the "morning after pill."
"On that basis I have instructed the Department of Public Health to follow the conclusion of my own legal counsel and to adopt that sounder view," Romney said. "In my personal view, it's the right thing for hospitals to provide information and access to emergency contraception to anyone who is a victim of rape."
The veto of the emergency contraception bill came at the time when Romney was contemplating his first run for president in 2008 and was staking out more conservative public positions.
A day after his veto, Romney explained it in an opinion piece in the Boston Globe, saying his anti-abortion views had "evolved and deepened."
"I believe that abortion is the wrong choice except in cases of incest, rape, and to save the life of the mother. I wish the people of America agreed, and that the laws of our nation could reflect that view," he wrote.
EDITOR'S NOTE _ An occasional look behind the rhetoric of political candidates.
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