Pro-Life Advocate Rick Santorum Heads to Iowa Again, Could Run in 2012
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
June 15, 2010
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Rick Santorum is heading back to Iowa, stoking further speculation the pro-life former U.S. senator could throw his hat in the ring for the 2012 Republican presidential primary. Santorum is one of several pro-life elected and former elected officials considering taking on President Barack Obama.
Should a pro-life candidate come away with the GOP nod, it will set up a stark contrast between the nominee and a president who has built a solid pro-abortion record.
Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator, announced today he will visit Iowa next week to deliver two speeches and campaign for a candidate for the state Senate, according to a CNN report.
"Each time I visit the Hawkeye state, I am struck by how concerned Iowans are about the state of our nation," said Santorum.
He added, They are fired up about the mid-term elections and engaged about what can be done to return our country back to the road of fiscal discipline and economic prosperity."
Santorum will address the Iowa GOP convention and an event for the a Scott County Lincoln Club and will campaign for Republican Sandy Greiner.
This isn’t Santorum’s only foray into leading primary and caucus states — he visited New Hampshire twice and has been in South Carolina four times, according to CNN.
In April, Santorum wood pro-life advocates as the featured speaker at a fundraising event for Wisconsin Right to Life.
Santorum, who has maintained a national presence since he was defeated for re-election, is considered a credible potential candidate because of his strong ties to the pro-life community.
The former member of Congress looked back and reminded the large crowd how he led the fight to ban partial-birth abortions.
"In 1996, I stepped up as the leader on the partial birth abortion issue," he said, adding that it was a great educational effort as well because "with the partial birth abortion issue, there’s one thing you can’t miss — the baby."
Santorum also had a personal connection to the fight against the gruesome abortion procedure.
"My wife Karen was 19 weeks pregnant with our fourth child, the age at which many partial birth abortions are performed," he said. "Two weeks later, Karen gave birth to our son Gabriel. And we were told he would not live. We held him for two days, and then he died."
The experience led Karen in writing a book "Letters to Gabriel;" and inspiring many others.
The Santorum family later had a baby girl with Trisomy and were told she would not live and that it was a condition incompatible with life. Doctors gave the family no hope and prescribed a lethal dose of medication telling them it would comfort baby Isabella.
"Baby Bella may not be able to talk or walk, but she can love. She has changed the hearts and minds of many," he said.
Moving forward, Santorum said the passage of the pro-abortion government-run health care bill "put the lives of vulnerable people like Bella at risk."
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