BOSTON – Facing opposition from women, the Democratic Party and even his own running mate, Gov. Mitt Romney abandoned plans Thursday to exempt religious and other private hospitals from a new law requiring them to dispense emergency contraception to rape victims.

The governor had initially backed regulations proposed earlier this week by his Department of Public Health, which said the new law conflicted with an older law barring the state from forcing private hospitals to dispense contraceptive devices or information.

The interpretation would have allowed hospitals operated by the Roman Catholic Church, which opposes abortion, to forego compliance with the new regulation. Opponents accused Romney, a Republican considering running for president in 2008, of trying to assuage social conservatives.

Despite defending the Health Department regulations as late as Wednesday, Romney kicked off a news conference Thursday by declaring a fresh analysis by his legal counsel concluded the new law superseded the old law, and that all hospitals must be required to offer the so-called “morning after pill.”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.

“I think it’s, 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,” he added.

Attorney General Tom Reilly, a Democrat planning to run for governor next year, said Romney’s initial legal interpretation was “a backdoor regulation” and would not have survived court challenge. He also highlighted the focus of the law: victims of rape.

“It’s a horrible thing to happen to anybody,” Reilly said. “You don’t want to make it any worse, and this administration was on a road that would have made it worse for women in that position.”

The new law takes effect on Dec. 14. Passed this summer by the Legislature, which then overrode Romney’s veto, it states that hospitals must make the pill available to “each female rape victim.”

The morning after pill provides a high dose of hormones that women can take up to five days after sex to prevent pregnancy. Opponents who believe life begins at conception contend the pill is little different from an abortion because it blocks the fertilized egg from being implanted on the uterine wall.

Seven other states require hospitals to provide emergency contraception to rape victims, and none include exemptions for religious and moral reasons. Three Illinois pharmacists filed a complaint with regulators in that state this week alleging they were dismissed from their jobs after refusing to fill prescriptions for the pill.

Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey, the likely GOP nominee for governor next year if Romney decides not to seek re-election, broke ranks with the governor, saying Wednesday that all hospitals should be required to distribute the pill.

The split was the latest between the two, as Healey has distanced herself from Romney’s increasingly conservative positions on some social issues. Before the regulation flap, she had said she opposed his veto of the emergency contraception bill. She also said she supports same-sex civil unions, although not gay marriage – while Romney has said he opposes Vermont-style civil unions.

Women, abortion rights groups and the Democratic Party also applied pressure, organizing phone calls to the governor’s office.

The political undercurrent was evident as two abortion rights advocates joined Reilly at a news conference called in reaction to Romney’s reversal.

“Rape victims should never have to worry about the affiliation of a hospital before they go there seeking their care, or are brought there in an ambulance,” said Angus McQuilken, a spokesman for Planned Parenthood.

Melissa Kogut, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts, declared, “The people of the commonwealth are not going to forget that the governor worked to block approved access to emergency contraception.”

The Catholic Church owns Caritas Christi Health Care, the second largest health care system in New England. Caritas issued a statement Wednesday saying its policy on emergency contraception mirrors directives issued by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on care for victims of sexual assault.

That includes providing emergency contraception to female patients, but only those who are not already pregnant.

A hospital spokeswoman did not immediately return a call seeking reaction on the latest development.