Santorum's Stance on Abortion

    Santorum's Confusing Stance(s) on Abortion

    In 1996, Rick Santorum and his wife Karen, had a child that was born prematurely and lived for only 2 hours. The child was born at 20 weeks old, which is a full-month from having a viable chance of living outside the womb. Due to multiple complications, Karen was deathly ill and came down with a fever of 105 degrees. The doctors encouraged her to allow them to induce labor, but she refused, saying that it is an abortion.

    After the incident, their views changed...

    "The doctors said they were talking about a matter of hours or a day or two before risking sepsis and both of them might die,'' Santorum said. ``Obviously, if it was a choice of whether both Karen and the child are going to die or just the child is going to die, I mean it's a pretty easy call." Rick Santorum - 1997

    "If the physician came to me and said if we don't deliver your baby in one hour you will be dead, yeah, I would have to do it,'' Karen Santorum - 1997

    So, obviously they realized that inducing the labor from the beginning would have been the best route to take. You would have a almost 100% chance of survival for Karen, rather than almost 0%. The Santorum's experienced something first hand, that absolutist principles can not always apply to practical situations. I respect Karen's strict adherence to her view of abortion, and her admittance after-the-fact, that this was probably not the best choice. However, I found it odd some statements that Rick Santorum has made recently.

    "They wanted a health exception, which of course is a phony exception which would make the ban ineffective."

    Really? You think that your wife's condition in 1996 was a phony exception, Rick? You do not think that, if requested, she could have had an abortion to ensure to ensure that her other children had a mother and father? Does this medical view not represent "saving a family?"

    "I've never supported criminalization of abortion for mothers, but I do for people who perform them."

    So, you would not only deny your wife her life by saying that this was a "phony exception," but if the doctor had broken the law and saved her life by having an abortion, your wife would live and the doctor would go to jail?

    How does this make any sense?

    Brennan Schaeuble