General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSo, bottom line, did Santorum's wife have an abortion or not?
By "abortion," I mean an induced abortion to protect the mother's health, not a spontaneous abortion as a result of infection.
I've seen this reported both ways--it was induced or it was spontaneous. If it were the former, Santorum is a massive hypocrite and should be derided for it. If it were the latter, it's a tragedy and the family is deserving only of sympathy on this matter.
Has anyone proven this one way or the other?
Demeter
(85,373 posts)mistertrickster
(7,062 posts)Demeter
(85,373 posts)The fact that he voices an opinion at all disqualifies him for any public office, IMO.
We the People have got to call these would-be "leaders" to heel.
SharonAnn
(13,772 posts)justiceischeap
(14,040 posts)http://www.salon.com/2012/01/06/karen_santorum_did_not_have_an_abortion/
If that's true, she had a miscarriage. However, the doctor interviewed for the above article said, without anyone seeing the medical records, there is no way to say if they're telling the truth about what happened.
mistertrickster
(7,062 posts)Given that Santorum would like to expose other women to investigation of their medical files, shouldn't they be releasing theirs?
That would be one point where'd he be vulnerable.
justiceischeap
(14,040 posts)but as a woman that he wants to violate, I'm not a big proponent of making what should be private, family business something for public consumption. I know it reeks of hypocrisy but what's good for the goose isn't always good for the gander.
roguevalley
(40,656 posts)may have had one with him and wasn't married. I also heard they both were okay with abortion until they got married and decided to become Mary and Joseph. Anyone corroborate that for me? I have heard it several times now.
Response to mistertrickster (Original post)
Erose999 This message was self-deleted by its author.
mzteris
(16,232 posts)explains the whole thing pretty well.
http://mysite.verizon.net/lardil/id81.html
mistertrickster
(7,062 posts)QUOTE from link above
The Santorums, according to an account written by the senator for today's Commentary Page in The Inquirer, struggled mightily to avoid the abortion option.
Ultimately, they did not have to make a decision; nature made it for them. Karen went into premature labor from an infection, delivering a boy who had a fatal abnormality. The child died two hours later.
In an interview, the Santorums said they would have authorized an abortion had there been no other choice . . .
Santorum opposes abortion "except in the cases of rape, incest or [to save] the life of the mother.'' He believes Roe v. Wade should be reversed so that states could regulate and restrict abortion, and opposes public funding of abortion.
END QUOTE
So even if they had opted for induced labor/abortion, it wouldn't be contradictory to Santorum's stated position.
Of course, enforcing such a position will make patients less safe and their records less private.
niyad
(113,278 posts)exception to his anti-abortion stance, because, according to this medical genius, women who have been raped excrete an enzyme that prevents pregnancy.
mistertrickster
(7,062 posts)Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)between a Doctor and the patient.
mistertrickster
(7,062 posts)Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)jorno67
(1,986 posts)so at 20 weeks - that's a partial birth abortion, right?
Capitalocracy
(4,307 posts)It wasn't a "partial birth abortion", it was an induced labor followed by a birth. Remember, these are Republicans: once you're out of the womb, you're on your own. The fact that that partially-formed fetus couldn't survive is nobody's fault but his own.
He should've gotten a job and pulled himself up by the bootstraps.
TexasProgresive
(12,157 posts)The use of oxytocin does not always indicate inducing labor-see below
http://www.enotes.com/uterine-stimulants-reference/uterine-stimulants-172503
jorno67
(1,986 posts)That makes sense - my wife was given that for all 3 of our kids (over due).
Sorry for the confusion!
The Second Stone
(2,900 posts)and we should respect that, regardless of what her husband does.
mistertrickster
(7,062 posts)Santorum has be held to the standard he would impose on others.
rfranklin
(13,200 posts)there is no reasonable expectation of privacy.
Gabriel was the couple's eighth pregnancy and he survived only two hours. In her book, Karen Santorum wrote about bringing the body home to their other children.
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/rick-santorum-dead-baby-critics-lambasted-families-grieve/story?id=15306750
redqueen
(115,103 posts)but the reporting here seems to indicate that she did not.
http://oursilverribbon.org/blog/?p=188
FSogol
(45,481 posts)redqueen
(115,103 posts)I read something that claimed she did in fact abort, and now I wish I hadn't taken it at face value.
moriah
(8,311 posts)Their statements in the years immediately following their child's death say they did not actually accept Pitocin.
The 2005 article claims they did but gives no source except their book about their son for the entire paragraph, and their book isn't available to be searched online through to find out if it was said in the book. I'm not about to go buy the thing.
-------
Regardless of if they're hypocrites or not, though, we don't have to be.
HappyMe
(20,277 posts)caused her to lose the baby.
mercuryblues
(14,531 posts)Karen Santorums difficult pregnancy and resultant life-saving, induced early delivery is no secret; in a 2004 interview with NPRs Terry Gross, her husband characterized the 1996 procedure as a harrowing but necessary. Karen, in her 19th week of pregnancy, received a risky surgery to save a pregnancy that doctors thought had little chance of survival. After the surgery, she came down with an infection, and doctors told Rick that unless the source of the infection the fetus was removed, his wife would die and his already-born children would be motherless. The doctor also told Santorum that his wifes fetus would not survive outside of the womb. According to Santorum, Karen went into labor as a result of the antibiotics, and then doctors gave her a drug that further induced labor. She delivered, and unfortunately the doctors were right.
As soon as they gave her the meds to speed up the labor, she went from having a spontaneous abortion to having a therapudic abortion. A choice he will deny every other woman in the country, if he has his way.
moriah
(8,311 posts)Given the fact that all obstetric emergencies are extremely complicated, I'd rather see his exact words than a 3rd-hand paraphrase.
mzteris
(16,232 posts)May 4, 1997
Karen was in her 19th week of pregnancy . . . the fetus Karen was carrying had a fatal defect and was going to die.
. . .the Santorums decided on long-shot intrauterine surgery to correct an obstruction of the urinary tract called posterior urethral valve syndrome. . . . The incision in the womb carried a high risk of infection.
Two days later, at home in the Pittsburgh suburb of Verona, Karen Santorum became feverish. . . . unless the source of the infection, the fetus, was removed from Karen's body, she would likely die.
At minimum, the doctor said, Karen had to be given antibiotics intravenously or she might go into septic shock and die.
. . . Once they agreed to use antibiotics, they believed they were committing to delivery of the fetus, which they knew would most likely not survive outside the womb.
. . . Santorum agreed to start his wife on intravenous antibiotics ``to buy her some time,'' he said.
Their volitional actions directly resulted in a premature birth causing the baby to die. Sounds like an abortion to me.
moriah
(8,311 posts)So another possible source for this rumor discredited.
mercuryblues
(14,531 posts)to it. Why would an anti-choice website report that as a fact?
moriah
(8,311 posts)It's all a huge mess of he-said she-said... meh....
mercuryblues
(14,531 posts)http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/22/magazine/22SANTORUM.html?ei=5088&en=83d72ed75fbada1d&ex=1274414400&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&pagewanted=all
The childbirth in 1996 was a source of terrible heartbreak -- the couple were told by doctors early in the pregnancy that the baby Karen was carrying had a fatal defect and would survive only for a short time outside the womb. According to Karen Santorum's book, ''Letters to Gabriel: The True Story of Gabriel Michael Santorum,'' she later developed a life-threatening intrauterine infection and a fever that reached nearly 105 degrees. She went into labor when she was 20 weeks pregnant. After resisting at first, she allowed doctors to give her the drug Pitocin to speed the birth. Gabriel lived just two hours.
mistertrickster
(7,062 posts)I thought I had it figured out at noon, heh.
moriah
(8,311 posts)I'm not about to go buy the book.