It was big news when the anti-choice organization Pro-Life Wisconsin made not one but two endorsements for Wisconsin’s governor’s race, backing Scott Walker and Mark Neumann, two Republicans they declared “embrace the total protection pro-life message – a message of consistency and compassion for the most vulnerable among us.”  That “total protection pro-life message” was supposed to include life from the moment of fertilization according to the organization, who’s mission statement says:

As a legislative and educational organization, Pro-Life Wisconsin is continually working to bring us closer to the day when all babies in Wisconsin (no matter how they were conceived, what stage of development they are at, or whether or not they are in perfect health) are protected in every community in our state.

Through advocacy at the State Capitol in Madison, we urge our elected officials to ban surgical abortion without exceptions for rape, incest, or the life and health of the mother. We advocate passage of a state constitutional amendment to establish the legal personhood of every preborn child from fertilization. We defend the conscience rights of medical professionals who refuse to prescribe or dispense abortifacient drugs or devices, and we work to stop all efforts to legalize euthanasia, assisted suicide and infanticide.

But a funny thing happened after the candidates received the group’s endorsement: neither of them seemed to be willing to make public statements saying that they oppose birth control like Pro-Life Wisconsin advocates.

When candidate Scott Walker dropped off the signatures necessary to get onto the governor’s ballot, he was questioned about his endorsement by Pro-Life Wisconsin, and especially their stance on birth control, to which he replied, “I’d have to look at the specifics of their arguments.” And when asked directly if he opposed condoms, he responded, “To me that’s not a position of the government.”

The other candidate, Mark Neumann, went even farther in distancing himself from Pro-Life Wisconsin’s anti-birth control views.  According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, when asked recently about the group’s position he stated:

“I do not agree with them on that issue,” Neumann said Friday on their opposition to birth control. “When it comes to birth control, obviously that’s something – I’d have two dozen children by now.”

Neumann, with his wife, Sue, by his side, spoke to reporters after turning in his signatures to get on the ballot. After making the comment, he joked, “If you’re going down that line, I’m going to ask my wife to leave.” (full audio here)

The Pro-Life Wisconsin endorsement is the first gubernatorial endorsement in recent memory, and in some ways it could be seen as shocking that the endorsed candidates are already trying to distance themselves from the group’s radical stances.

But what is more interesting is how different the candidates’ answers are from their own public records.

Mark Neumann states on his campaign site that “Life begins at conception,” something that would seem to be at odds with his his above-stated stance in favor of birth control.  He voted while in Congress to eliminate family planning money via Title X, as well as to restrict access to family planning globally.

As for Scott Walker, his tight-lipped answer on his birth control stance seems to be fitting for a candidate who has no mention of the endorsement on his campaign site, nor even a section regarding choice issues on his issues page.  His silence is quite different from his time in the legislature, where he stated his proudest accomplishment was his attempt to strip Planned Parenthood, not just of all funding for abortion, but for any type of family planning services, including birth control.  He also focused on denying insurance coverage for birth control and allowing pharmacists to refuse to fill birth control prescriptions.

For both candidates, running away from the extremist positions of Pro-Life Wisconsin seems to be a campaign theme, yet their actions speak louder than their words.  Walker can remain evasive on the issue, and Neumann can make jokes about the necessity of birth control in his own family, but their records both show that how they run their personal lives and how they intend to force state residents to live are two separate matters.