Rick Santorum Preparing for Potential 2012 Pro-Life Republican Presidential Bid
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
August 12, 2010
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — He’s not officially a candidate for the Republican nomination for president in 2012, but pro-life former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum is actively making preparations in case he decides to become one.
Santorum, who became a darling of the pro-life movement for leading the fight in the Senate to ban partial-birth abortions, has been actively speaking in key early primary states.
In a new interview with the conservative Daily Caller, Santorum confirmed he held a staff meeting recently with former Senate staffers and is putting together potential staff, donors and activists to support a presidential bid.
“I’m going through the process of what someone who is seriously considering running would do,” Santorum said, “in order for when the time comes to decide, I’m in a position that I have a choice.”
Santorum, who said he would ultimately make a decision by the end of this year or the beginning of 2011, said three factors would determine whether he mounts a bid against pro-abortion President Barack Obama.
The first is gauging the response to his activities in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.
He said he’s “getting reaction from people on what they think of the message, what they think of the messenger, what they think of my background and my accomplishments and how that fits into what people are looking for in 2012.”
Secondly, he told the Daily Caller that having the financial resources to make a presidential campaign happen is important.
“You can’t run a campaign unless you have resources,” he said. “I’m talking to folks about what resources might be available if I do this.”
And finally, he says family considerations, including how to take care of his many children and one disabled child, would play an enormous role in deciding what to do.
Earlier this year, Santorum wood pro-life advocates in Wisconsin with a speech blasting abortion at a fundraising event for Wisconsin Right to Life. https://www.lifenews.com/state5048.html
"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.
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