Republican Mitt Romney clarified Wednesday that he remains opposed to abortion and would take action if elected president to reduce its use in this country and around the world.

"I think I've said time and again. I'm a pro-life candidate. I'll be a pro-life president," Romney said in Ohio. "The actions I'll take immediately are to remove funding for Planned Parenthood. It will not be part of my budget. And also I've indicated I'll reverse the Mexico City position of the president. I will reinstate the Mexico City policy," which does not allow U.S. tax dollars to fund abortions overseas.

His position came into question because of a statement he made about abortion Tuesday. "There's no legislation with regards to abortion that I'm familiar with that would become part of my agenda," Romney told the Des Moines Register.

Some conservatives have questioned how committed Romney is to opposing abortion, in part because as Massachusetts governor, he initially supported abortion rights. Now he would allow abortion in case of rape, incest and to save the mother's life.

The campaign reached out to prominent conservatives -- including Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council -- to assure them that Romney's position has not changed, said Talking Points Memo.

Democrats seized the issue. Romney "not only has trivialized this issue, but is being incredibly dishonest about where he stands," said Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation.

LOS ANGELES TIMES

OBAMA: I WAS 'TOO POLITE' AT DEBATE

President Obama on Wednesday continued his own critique of his debate performance last week, telling Tom Joyner, a radio talk show host, that he had been "too polite" with Mitt Romney.

"It's hard to sometimes just keep on saying, 'And what you're saying isn't true,'" Obama said. He said that he would be more aggressive in Tuesday's debate. "We're going to go ahead and win this thing," Obama said.

He also told Diane Sawyer of ABC News: "Gov. Romney had a good night. I had a bad night. It's not the first time I've had a bad night, What's important is the fundamentals of what this race is about haven't changed."

NEW YORK TIMES

JUDGES UPHOLD S.C. VOTER ID LAW

A South Carolina voter identification law does not discriminate against blacks but must be delayed until next year because it would cause too much confusion at polling places so close to Election Day, a federal court ruled Wednesday.

A special three-judge panel found the law, which requires voters to display one of five types of photo identification, would not harm blacks and was not enacted with discrimination in mind. "South Carolina's new voter ID law is significantly more friendly to voters without qualifying photo IDs than several other contemporary state laws that have passed legal muster," wrote Brett Kavanaugh, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He was joined in his opinion by U.S. District Court judges Colleen Kollar-Kotelly and John Bates.

However, the judges blocked it from being implemented until at least 2013, citing "the potential for chaos" if officials tried to enforce it during the presidential election Nov. 6. It is the second recent ruling by a federal judicial panel weighing the legality of new voter-ID laws. A three-judge court in August struck down a Texas measure, saying it would impose "strict, unforgiving" burdens on minority members.

WASHINGTON POST