Rick Santorum On Opposition To Abortion In Cases Of Rape: 'Make The Best Out Of A Bad Situation'

GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum explained his opposition to abortion even in cases of rape during an interview Friday, saying that women who face such circumstances should "make the best out of a bad situation."

Asked by CNN's Piers Morgan what he would do if his own daughter approached him, begging for an abortion after having been raped, Santorum explained that he would counsel her to "accept this horribly created" baby, because it was still a gift from God, even if given in a "broken" way.

"Well, you can make the argument that if she doesn't have this baby, if she kills her child, that that, too, could ruin her life. And this is not an easy choice, I understand that. As horrible as the way that that son or daughter and son was created, it still is her child. And whether she has that child or she doesn't, it will always be her child, and she will always know that," Santorum said.

"And so to embrace her and to love her and to support her and get her through this very difficult time, I've always, you know, I believe and I think the right approach is to accept this horribly created -- in the sense of rape -- but nevertheless a gift in a very broken way, the gift of human life, and accept what God has given to you. As you know, we have to, in lots of different aspects of our life we have horrible things happen. I can't think of anything more horrible, but nevertheless, we have to make the best out of a bad situation and I would make the argument that that is making the best."

(Video above via CNN)

Santorum has crusaded against abortion throughout his tenure as a legislator and presidential hopeful. A recent analysis of his time as a U.S. senator showed an almost obsessive tendency to talk about abortion-related subjects on the Senate floor. His strict views on the issue, as well as gay rights, have repeatedly drawn aggressive pushback from his detractors on the campaign trail.

In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal on Monday, Santorum called Obama's support of women's reproductive rights "radical and extreme," arguing that this was illustrated through the president's recent statement on the 39th anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

Other hardline anti-abortion advocates have explained their views much like Santorum has. In 2010, Tea Party-backed Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle was asked to explain her belief that abortions were unacceptable even in the case of a girl being raped by her father.

"I think that two wrongs don't make a right," she answered. "And I have been in the situation of counseling young girls, not 13 but 15, who have had very at-risk, difficult pregnancies. And my counsel was to look for some alternatives, which they did. And they found that they had made what was really a lemon situation into lemonade."

Comments

[Raininggrace4711]

12:07 AM on 09/15/2012

My heart breaks for any woman that goes through this, it is truly one of the hardest and most emotional choices to make.
Let me preface this by saying: I do not agree with abortion, and I believe that God wants us to love the children he gave us.
HOWEVER: It is NOT my right to decide what another woman does. And it is most CERTAINLY NOT the right of a man like Santorum to decide what these women do. He could never go through the same situation and his decision has no impact on himself, however it would effect women who have gone through this horrible act. He has no right to make this decision, even less than another, unrelated woman would have.
The decision that these women make is between them and God only. I will not judge them, because it is God's right to judge, and I cannot possibly know all of the things that he knows: what happened, what could have happened, etc.

[sabra505]

04:35 PM on 07/29/2012

Syrinx14, the best One to decide is not the woman raped but God Himself.

"Thou shalt not kill" and that means abortion.

Every expectant woman is expecting a baby.

It's not some blob- it is a living soul, a human being.

It's not equine, bovine, or swine....it's DIVINE.

The lunacy of Darwin aside, each of us is precious in the sight
of a creative God.

Your solution makes a bad situation worse: we do not solve rape
with murder.

DO NOT cause the life of an innocent baby boy or girl to perish
because of the sins of another.

"Destruction of Roe vs. Wade" or destruction of innocent life?

[syrinx14]

05:49 AM on 07/26/2012

If Republicans continue with their destruction of Roe vs. Wade, does that mean they'll pass laws that say you have to marry your rapist if you conceive? Because the woman has to bear the economic burden of raising the child in addition to being raped. If they marry, then the rapist will have to economically support her and the child. (Yeah, right.) Are they going to pass those laws, too?

Why does the woman who was raped have to then carry the pregnancy, deliver the baby and then pay $180,000 to raise a rapist's child? The woman did not voluntarily offer her genetic material for half of the baby. She was violated. So Republicans are going to sentence both the woman (with PTSD by now) and child both to live in poverty the rest of their lives because of the actions of a rapist. Yep. Makes Santorum Sense.

Yes, she can put the child up for adoption. But should a raped woman have to deliver the rapist's child? Are the Republicans going to make that a law, too?

I believe the woman who is raped is the best person to make these decisions. Not a fanatical conservative theorocrat who wants to make laws that tell women whether on not they maintain a pregnancy after being raped. Next they'll be trying to pass laws where we can go to church. Because after all, if they can tell you what you get to put in your uterus, your brain is next.

[LuxorLava]

10:26 AM on 07/24/2012

So does he also support the ban of pesticides that cause miscarriages in women???

[Nate Erickson]

10:22 PM on 07/22/2012

Do not believe the lies; abortion is not always a "Safe" option for women - women sometimes die.
http://www.suntimes.com/news/13927970-418/woman-dies-after-abortion-at-planned-parenthood-clinic.html

[Andrew Baker21]

01:52 PM on 07/26/2012

I nearly died from getting my wisdom teeth removed, lets ban that.

[Nate Erickson]

08:59 AM on 07/27/2012

lol touche

[notevenwhat]

07:37 PM on 04/20/2012

First of all, I just want to say that I am religious. I believe in God. That being said, I personally feel that the choice of abortion should be left up to the mother. Sometimes a woman just cannot go through with the pregnancy, whether its because of rape, or because of health reasons, or because of money reasons. Using myself as an example, (I have never been pregnant, but I can only use myself as the example) if I were to get pregnant at, say, fourteen (which, by the way, would be considered a high-risk pregnancy) then not only would I have to deal with being pregnant at such a young age, I would also have to worry about my heart problem. I was born missing my left ventricle in my heart. Therefore, at any age, any pregnancy of mine would be considered high risk. So, I'd have a doubly high-risk pregnancy. Is it really anyone's decision but my own to go through with it? Is it anyone's decision but my own to decide whether I want to risk my life? Nope, sorry.

[Pearlandvb]

01:25 PM on 03/21/2012

Please. Let's make this man the Republican Party candidate. It will be the biggest Republican loss ever, and will probably put the party in the toilet forever.

[IndestructibleLioness]

09:16 PM on 03/19/2012

If a woman who is raped decides to keep the baby that is her choice. If a woman who is raped decides to abort the baby that is her choice. No the choice of Santorum. I guess if he is elected the victim will be forced to marry their attacker. Or worse: the attacker or attackers get a free pass while the victim is stoned or flogged. Backwards thinking never helped anyone.

[Claude Sheer]

09:57 AM on 03/17/2012

The case of the young rape victim in Morocco brought this topic back to mind. Forced marriage to your attacker is only one small step beyond forbidding abortion of a fetus conceived by rape. The most interesting part for me is that it seems that all of the people supporting these remarkably offensive concepts have male genitalia and bear none of the burden they characterize as a gift.

[Tiffany Gustafson]

06:01 PM on 03/11/2012

A fetus is not a baby! It is a lump of mush in your womb that is too become a baby but keep in mind NOT YET A BABY!!! Any of you against a woman's right to choose is MISGUIDED and IGNORANT! Yes, I believe in God and even GOD gives us the right to choose! Lucifer fell for trying to take that right away. A teenage girl gets pregnant (or even an adult for that matter) because of rape and you would HONESTLY FORCE them to have that child?! That is horrible and the child ends up suffering in the end because everytime that parent looks at her child she will KNOW how it came to be and children pick up on EVERY nuance. This world is overpopulated as it is and HOW MANY KIDS in foster care getting MESSED up by the brainwashing system. I myself am a child of adoption and I was treated like CINDERELLA!!! Anyone will tell you that, that knew my situation will tell you how MESSED up my adopted parents were to me. How I was like the perverbial red-headed step child. It is wrong to take away a woman's right to choose! ESPECIALLY in a situation of rape! Shame on you for trying to take away that GOD GIVEN RIGHT TO HAVE A CHOICE!!!

[redsox1491]

01:14 PM on 06/20/2012

Thank your mother for letting you live. I am just curious were you once a lump of mush as well? This was a very educated post.

[markbanks]

01:54 PM on 03/02/2012

Piers Morgan does a good job of asking the questions, but unfortunately does not ask Santorum why he thinks it should be illegal and punishable by law to have an abortion for all other people but himself and his wife! They had a partial birth abortion in 1974, brought home the fetus in the car and passed it around to all of their kids, before burying it. Pretty fair question to ask, don't you think?

[StinkyPinkyPete]

12:41 PM on 03/06/2012

It was a miscarriage. The rest of your story is pretty much accurate, as wierd and gross as it sounds.
I'm not a fan of Santorum but everyone has their own way to grieve. I've seen family videos on YouTube videos of still borns, so apparently this is not an uncommon practice, however morbid it may seem.
Still WAS NOT an abortion. Please site your sources when you want to say things like that.
My Source is a Washington Post article.

[groundling]

12:51 PM on 02/29/2012

God raped Mary, and Jesus Christ was the product.

[NyJimbo]

11:36 AM on 03/15/2012

If you believe in God and believe that Jesus was the child of Mary from God then you cannot say God raped Mary. It was a virginal conception. You cant believe one half of the story and toss away the other.

[PhantomShadow]

09:47 AM on 02/29/2012

As someone on another site pointed out, would getting pregnant because of rape really be a gift from God? If God was going to give a gift to a victim of rape, wouldn't it be to not get pregnant?

[Annette Rf]

10:02 AM on 02/20/2012

I'm a woman, and I agree with Santorum. I was sexually assulted in the 1970s when I was in high school, and while I did not become pregnant, if I had I would not have sought to punish the innocent baby for the crime of the father. What sane person does that?

[Jaxa]

04:12 AM on 02/22/2012

Please don't question the sanity of people who would make a different choice than the one you would make. It is a sane decision - it's one I would make in a heartbeat if I was raped. I would be taking the morning-after pill, flooding my body with black cohosh and vitamin C and doing everything possible to make sure that rapist didn't have a hold on me from inside my very own womb.

Forcing women to carry the product of rape is wrong, but forcing all women who have been raped to have an abortion is equally wrong. Every woman should be free to make the right decision for her - abortion should not be a political football, it's a deeply personal thing.

[carrieanndodson]

03:20 PM on 03/07/2012

Jaxa - I suppose you must support Ron Paul then: http://files.meetup.com/504095/Ron%20Paul-Abortion%20and%20Liberty.pdf

I certainly hope you do.

[wdjmozingo]

12:46 PM on 03/02/2012

Your choice,Let every other woman have this choice.Dont let the church or goverment decide for them.The way this world is now a days,maybe it is insane to bring a child into it.

[Anya Stefanovich]

09:42 PM on 03/31/2012

It is not a "choice" to murder an innocent, unborn child.

[poulsene]

12:17 AM on 02/10/2012

This idiot needs a class on the human body, the morning after pill is for situations like rape victims, both him and Newt know nothing about the medical field behind this pill, no woman gets pregnant instantly, its impossible, to instantly become pregnant from being raped, it takes the sperm hours to make its way up towards the egg. Now the morning after pill floods the womans body with estrogen making the uterus inhabitable for the sperm to survive. No egg has been fertilized, life hasn't begun, the sperm never makes it to the egg. So tell me what's really wrong with giving a rape victim this pill when no pregnancy has even occurred. Also how come his wife got to have an abortion, why was it okay for her and not for anyone else, Sandorum is a hypocrite.

[Locksley]

08:30 AM on 02/18/2012

What you're really saying is that the Catholic Church is an idiot institution and needs to throw out its doctrine of 1978 years. Found in The Didache, a Catholic book from the AD 70s, is the command that Christians are not to commit infanticide or abortion.

The Church, and members who actually do believe in the precepts of Christ, understand that personal responsibility for one's actions does not include the taking of human life. MOST women commit the sin of abortion because of intimidation by parents, husbands and boyfriends, or due to "convenience". Less than 10% of women actually terminate the life of the child in their wombs because of "choice".

Your body, once you become pregnant, is the bearer of another life. In that way a woman takes on the same responsibility of God who is always pro-life.

A very pleasant good morning to you.

[LizzB]

05:50 PM on 03/01/2012

The Catholic church used to believe that witches were real and the Earth was flat. Guess what? They were wrong.

[carrieanndodson]

03:30 PM on 03/07/2012

Locksley,

You clearly know your Catholic Doctrine well enough to cite the historical context of the Church's position on abortion. However, your support of Santorum puzzles me since he openly admits to voting for your tax dollars to be used to pay for abortions via planned parenthood. He recuses himself from this position by saying he 'allocated funds for abstinence programs as well.' If I gave a young woman money for an abortion and then sat down and had a talk with her about abstinence I would hardly be considered Pro Life. Just a few weeks ago Catholic Pro Life groups went nuts over revelations that the Komen Foundation funded Planned Parenthood for 'breast exams.' I don't see any significant difference in Komen's actions and Santorum's - with the exception that the Komen monies allocated to PP may have at least been earmarked for breast exams. I won't donate to Komen as long as they provide funds to Planned Parenthood and I won't vote for a candidate who has ever voted to fund Planned Parenthood. Santorum's rhetoric may appeal to Pro Life Catholics and other Christian Denominations but I'm not willing to place rhetoric over record. Ron Paul has NEVER voted to fund Planned Parenthood and he will get my vote.