Sam Brownback, Pro-Life Senator, Starts Presidential Exploratory Cmte 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
December 4, 2006
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — One of the leading pro-life lawmakers on Capitol Hill has moved closer to a potential presidential bid for 2008. Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas filed papers to establish a presidential exploratory committee to possible seek the Republican nomination for president.
"I have decided, after much prayerful consideration, to consider a bid for the Republican nomination for the presidency," Brownback said in a statement.
"There is a real need in our country to rebuild the family and renew our culture and there is a need for genuine conservatism and real compassion in the national discussion," he added.
Brownback has been a strong pro-life advocate on both abortion and bioethics issues and has a consistent 100 percent pro-life voting record on various pro-life issues from the National Right to Life Committee.
He has won strong support from the pro-life community for not only voting pro-life but serving as a key sponsor of legislation.
He sponsored a measure to allow the federal government to prohibit the use of the drugs in assisted suicides and has been the leading lawmaker behind a bill that would ban all forms of human cloning.
Brownback recently said he would push for a vote on a bill telling women of their pain their babies would feel during an abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy. The House will vote on the measure Wednesday and Brownback said he would seek a vote afterwards.
The senator announced some of the members of his exploratory advisory committee and they include several strong pro-life advocates including Father Frank Pavone, the director of Priests for Life.
Domino‘s Pizza founder Tom Monaghan and former Major League Baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn, both of whom have received awards for their pro-life advocacy, serve as Brownback advisors as well.
Brownback says his eight-year-old daughter Jenna, a girl he adopted from Shantou City, China, is the reason he so adamantly believes life should be protected.
"I look at her often at night, and I wonder, ‘You know, somebody who I’ve never met fought for her — and she’s alive and making straight A’s and a brilliant, beautiful girl because somebody fought for her," he said in September.
"It would have been easier to abort her, but they fought for her," Brownback explained. "And I hope we never forget about that — that that’s what we fight for in life. We fight for them."
Brownback also likes to talk about a disabled man named Jimmy who runs the elevators that shuttle members of the Senate from the Senate floor to their offices.
"His warm smile welcomes us every day. We’re a better body for him," Brownback said.
"And, yet, we’re ennobled by him and what he does and how he lifts up our humanity and 80 to 90 percent of the kids in this country like Jimmy never get here," Brownback said of abortions of disabled babies.
Brownback appears at the bottom of recent polls of potential 2008 GOP candidates for president that show former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani and Sen. John McCain of Arizona leading the race.
Giuliani and McCain strongly support forcing taxpayers to fund embryonic stem cell research and Giuliani also strongly backs abortion.
Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who recently said he is pro-life, pro-abortion New York Gov. George Pataki, pro-life Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, pro-life California Rep. Duncan Hunter and pro-life Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel are others who may run as well.
Related web sites:
Sam Brownback for President – https://www.brownback.com
