For the better part of a year, Mitt Romney has been frantically trying to narrow his persistent gap with President Obama among women voters. (In recent polling, Romney's disadvantage remains in the range of 8 to 13 points.) As a show of his commitment, Romney announced in March that his wife Ann "reports to me regularly" about the concerns of American women. In August, Mitt tapped her to run the "Women for Mitt Coalition."
But during his first run for the White House, Governor Romney had a much different message about Ann's role. "Her positions", Romney insisted in 2007, "I do not think are terribly relevant to my campaign." As it turns out, Mitt threw Ann under the bus while he was trying to do the same thing to Planned Parenthood.
During the '94 Senate campaign when her husband declared the death of a "dear, close family relative" from an illegal abortion inspired his formerly "unwavering" pro-choice position, Ann Romney put her money where her Mitt's mouth was. That fall of 1994, Ann and Mitt attended a Planned Parenthood event. During a time when he was trying to establish his pro-choice bona fides with liberal Massachusetts voters, Ann wrote a check for $150 to the organization. Eight years later during Mitt's successful run for governor, it was Ann who vouched for her husband's commitment to protecting a woman's right to choose:

ANN ROMNEY: I think women also recognize that they want someone who is going to manage the state well. I think they may be more nervous about him on social issues. They shouldn't be, because he's going to be just fine. But the perception is that he won't be. That's an incorrect perception.
MITT ROMNEY: So when asked will I preserve and protect a woman's right to choose, I make an unequivocal answer: yes.

But as he headed into the GOP presidential race in 2007, Romney's "unequivocal answer" was now the wrong one for conservative Republican primary voters. When Romney was asked about the 1994 Planned Parenthood event and his wife's donation to the group, he didn't merely state he had "no recollection." (Then president and CEO of the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts. Nichols Gamble seemed surprised, explaining "I can understand that he might not remember the check -- it's surprising to me that he would not remember the event. His main motivation for being there was a political motivation.") As the New York Times reported, Mr. Romney had a much different view of the Mrs. Romney who would later his Women for Mitt Coalition:

"Her positions are not terribly relevant for my campaign."

For her part, the episode understandably remains a painful one for Ann. During a January 2008 interview in Florida (around the 3:10 mark), a clearly irked Mrs. Romney brushed off a question about the contribution to Planned Parenthood, before walking away:

"That was 14 years ago and $100. Do you really think I'd remember?"

Of course, both Mr. and Mrs. Romney are hoping American voters, especially women voters, have even shorter memories. After all, in 2002 would-be Governor Romney told Planned Parenthood in a questionnaire he completed for the group that he supported Roe v. Wade, providing abortion services through Medicaid and expanding access to emergency contraception. Ten years later, would-be President Romney doesn't merely want to "end" Planned Parenthood; he wants to zero out the entire Title X women's health program as well.
As for the hundreds of thousands of Massachusetts women who believed the pro-choice versions of Ann and Mitt Romney in 2002, and the millions more who rely on and support Planned Parenthood services now, the Romneys have a message for them. They are not terribly relevant for his campaign.