Huntsman’s Pro-Life Record Attracts Brownback Campaign Manager

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Mar 30, 2011   |   12:46PM   |   Washington, DC

The man who was the campaign manager for Sam Brownback’s 2008 Republican presidential campaign is supporting former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman and hopes the pro-life advocate will declare for the 2012 race.

Rob Wasinger, who headed the campaign of the former U.S. senator from Kansas who is now the state’s governor, told LifeNews.com he joins other Hunstman supporters in encouraging the man who has served as President Barack Obama’s ambassador to China to seek the Republican nomination. Wasinger says Huntsman’s pro-life position and record attract him to the oft-mentioned potential candidate.

“There are some candidates out there who claim to be pro-life, but as Governor, Jon Huntsman did the hard work of advocating for the cause of life when others would run and hide,” Wasinger said. ” I have found that in my years of public service, it is the people that actually have a record on an issue that are the most reliable.  Anyone can roll out talking points; but only a true leader can actually put together a record of service.”

Huntsman signed a trio of pro-life bills in February 2009 that the Utah legislature approved — including legislation to make second-trimester abortions illegal, a measure to allow women to know about the pain their unborn children will feel during an abortion, and a bill that would create a legal defense fund to pay for litigation related to lawsuit abortions advocates file against state legislation.

Huntsman has also lived out his pro-life views in that he has seven children, two of whom were from international adoptions.

In 1999, the Huntsman family adopted Gracie Mei from Yangzhou, China. She was a little girl who had been abandoned in a vegetable market. The path to adoption began when Huntsman’s wife Mary Kaye volunteered in a Catholic orphanage while they were living in Tien Mu, Taiwan. After they returned to the U.S., Mary Kaye continued to research adoptions and convinced Jon to start the process.

While attending a Christmas tree benefit auction she bought a tree dedicated to adoption. When the vendor asked her what to name it, her kids suggested the name for the new sister they hoped to someday have, Gracie Mei. Mary Kaye told the vendor that name at 8:15 p.m. and, when the Huntsman family returned home, there was a message received at 8:15  p.m. from the adoption agency notifying the family they had a found a child for the family.

The Huntsmans also adopted Asha Bharati from Gujarat, India in 2006.

“As pro-lifers we need someone who is 100% committed to the pro-life cause, and who can beat Obama in November of 2012,” Wasinger told LifeNews. “That person is Jon Huntsman and I, like many others in this country, are strongly encouraging him to run for President. Should Jon Huntsman run for President, I will work hard to elect him and to make sure we get his record of conservative accomplishment out to the voters.”

Wasinger is also Brownback’s former chief of staff and assisted the senator by preparing Human Cloning Prohibition Act and other pieces of pro-life legislation Brownback sponsored or supported with other pro-life lawmakers.