santorum's two faces on abortion
Santorum’s Two Faces On Abortion
Former Governor Rick Santorum has used his status as a “champion for the unborn” as a way to separate himself from the rest of the Republican presidential field and become the candidate of choice for social conservatives. Many of his most rigid views on abortion appear to be based on his own personal life experiences. Because his child who was diagnosed with Trisomy 18 has survived longer than expected, there should be no abortions due to genetic abnormalities. Because his wife ended up going into labor on her own and losing the baby as a result when she was sick, rather than having an abortion before hand, abortion is never necessary for the life or health of the mother.
. . . .
And Santorum then explained that in the beginning, he wasn’t really much of an anti-abortion politician at all. “Not for the first time, Santorum admitted that at age 30, ‘when I decided to run for the Congress, I was sort of an agnostic on the abortion issue.’ He ‘hadn’t really thought about abortion as an issue that much. . . . It wasn’t an issue that I really cared much about. But when I thought about running for office I knew . . . this is an issue people are going to care about.’” According to Santorum, it took prodding by his father in law to make him look at the issue in a scientific, rational approach. “Dr. Garver, he said, ‘walked me through . . . the process,’ from ‘the standpoint of a scientist,’ of “how human life begins, and at the moment of conception there is a unique individual, someone with a unique DNA who is alive.’”
Compare that to Santorum’s public appearance in front of 900 religious right voters in South Carolina over the weekend. “Rick Santorum gave an emotional speech to over 900 people at Cathedral of Praise church, where he shared stories of his daughter, Bella, and son, Gabriel, who lived for only two hours, to explain his anti-abortion position.’I decided to run for president not because I had this idea I needed to become president of the United States, but one of the reasons Karen and I decided to do that in the face of having this child who needed so much care and help was because we wanted to make sure that we had a healthcare system and we had a society that respected the dignity of every human life.’”
Two very different faces. Two very different arguments. But both put a woman’s ability to control her own body to the backburner in favor of the “rights of the unborn.” It’s just a matter of whether it is a political conversion, or one based on his own personal experiences that spurs him on.
Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/santorums-two-faces-on-abortion.html#ixzz1jkrRcAGI