Romney on Abortion, Immigration, Health Care, and Education Examined, Where Does He Stand?

With the final of the trilogy of debates having drawn to a close, GOP candidate Mitt Romney looks to go into a head-to-head battle with President Barack Obama for the remaining eight swing states that could determine the presidency.

Leading into the last few debates, questions have arisen regarding Romney's stances on controversial issues such as abortion, immigration, health care and education, with Democrats and critics claiming that Romney has masked his real agenda in an effort to attract more moderate voters.

With the election exactly two weeks away, Latinos Post takes a look at where he stands on some of these issues:

Abortion:

As per his website, Romney states that he is pro-life.

The Obama campaign recently fired back to a Romney ad that claimed the GOP candidate had a more moderate view on abortion with an ad of their own showing Romney stating that he would ban all abortions, the Wall Street Journal reported Oct. 18.

As governor of Massachusetts, Romney vetoed a bill that would have allowed the cloning of human embryos, his web site states.

Education:

According to his website, Romney he had several objectives, including, as read on the site:

- Reforming No Child Left Behind By Emphasizing Transparency And Responsibility For Results.

- Attracting And Reward Great Teachers Through Increased Flexibility And Block Grants.

- Replacing Burdensome Regulation with Innovation and Competition.

But the subject of education took stage at the final debate Monday night, when Obama attacked Romney's stance on hiring teachers, as the Huffington Post reported.

"Governor Romney, when you were asked by teachers whether or not this would help the economy grow, you said this isn't going to help the economy grow," Obama said.

Romney would try and refute that during the debate.

"I love teachers," Romney said. "And I'm happy to have states and communities that want to hire teachers do that. By the way, I don't like to have the federal government start pushing its weight deeper and deeper into the schools. Let the states and localities do that. I was a governor -- the federal government didn't hire our teachers. I want to get our private sector growing, and I know how to do it."

Romney has previously told the Des Moines Register, as reported the Huffington Post, that "hiring school teachers in not going to raise the growth of the U.S. economy over the next three-to-four years."

Health Care:

Perhaps this issue had starkly defined both candidates more than any one.

On his web site, Romney has stated that he would repeal Obama's comprehensive health care overhaul-dubbed "Obamacare" - while proposing a counter plan that would, according to his site:

- Provide Block grant Medicaid and other payments to states,

- Limit federal standards and requirements on both private insurance and Medicaid coverage,

- Cap non-economic damages in medical malpractice lawsuits,

- Prevent discrimination against individuals with pre-existing conditions who maintain continuous coverage.

However, in September, as ABC News reported, Romney said that he would keep some of the elements of the plan that Obama passed.

"Well, I'm not getting rid of all of healthcare reform," Romney said in an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press."

"Of course there are a number of things that I like in healthcare reform that I'm going to put in place," Romney said. "One is to make sure that those with pre-existing conditions can get coverage."

Immigration:

Another issue where the candidates disagree is immigration.

Romney has listed on his web site that he would build a high-tech fence to enhance border security, have officers on the ground to control the border, develop mandatory verification systems for employers to run eligibility checks on workers and giving legal permanent residents priority when applying to bring family members to the U.S.

The Obama campaign has attacked Romney's stance on immigration repeatedly during the campaign, and it's likely that Romney's views have resulted in Hispanics overwhelmingly favoring Obama by a wide margin, according to a recent Pew Hispanic Center survey.