Pro-Life Candidate Rand Paul Suspends His Republican Presidential Campaign

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Feb 3, 2016   |   10:11AM   |   Washington, DC

Rand Paul, the pro-life senator from Kentucky, announced today that he is suspending his presidential campaign after a poorer-than-hoped-for showing in Iowa on Monday night. Paul, the son of former presidential hopeful Ron Paul, received just 4.5 percent of the vote in Iowa — placing him fifth behind Ted Cruz, Donald Trump, Marco Rubio and Ben Carson.

“It’s been an incredible honor to run a principled campaign for the White House,” Paul said in a statement. “Today, I will end where I began, ready and willing to fight for the cause of Liberty.”

“Although, today I will suspend my campaign for President, the fight is far from over,” Paul continued. “I will continue to carry the torch for Liberty in the United States Senate and I look forward to earning the privilege to represent the people of Kentucky for another term.”

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At the most recent Republican presidential debate, Paul staked out a strong pro-life position, saying he believes abortion is always wrong.

“You know, I think abortion is always wrong,” he replied to a question from the Fox News moderator. “I’ve supported a variety of solutions, both state as well as federal. In fact, just last week, I introduced the Life at Conception Act, which would say that the 14th amendment would defend an individual even in the womb.”

Paul then launched into a statement about the intersection of morality and government:

I think liberty, itself requires a virtue — requires a virtuous people. In fact, Washington said that democracy requires a virtuous people.

Oz Guinness, the theologian, said that liberty requires restraint but the only restraint consistent with liberty is self-restraint. There’s a lot packed into that statement. But the bottom line is we must have virtue, we must have a religious bearing as a nation. The government is not always going to save us and it’s not always going to come from government.

But if we don’t know right and wrong, I think we have lost our way. I think we become unmoored and I think without the religious foundation that guides us all, I think we have a great risk of going horribly in the wrong direction.

As far as whether Paul thinks there should be a federal or state solution to the question of how to provide legal protection for unborn children, Paul said both.

I have said that we could leave it to the states but I’ve also introduced a federal solution as well. So the federal solution would be the Life at Conception Act – which is an act that would federalize the issue.

But I’ve also said for the most part, these issues would be left back to the states. So there might be an occasion if we did overturn Roe v. Wade – Roe v. Wade nationalized the issue. If you had the court reverse Roe v. Wade, it would become a state issue once again.

“I think it would be better the more — the less abortions we have, so the more states that we have that made abortion illegal, the better, as far as trying to save and preserve lives,” the Kentucky senator concluded.

Paul has a 100% pro-life voting record — voting against Obamacare, to stop abortion funding with taxpayer dollars, and protecting the conscience rights of pro-life people. Paul has said “personal religious belief” is that life begins at conception.

On his campaign web site, Paul makes his pro-life views very clear.

“I strongly believe in the sanctity of life. I believe that life begins at conception and that abortion takes the life of an innocent human being. Under the 14th Amendment, it is the government’s duty to protect life as defined in our Constitution,” he says. “As a physician, one of the first things we learn is to ‘Do no harm.’  Since Roe v. Wade decision, over 50 million children have been killed in abortion procedures. As President, I would strongly support legislation restricting federal courts from hearing cases like Roe v. Wade, in an effort to stop harming the lives of the unborn.”

Paul continues: “Our government should not be responsible for funding abortions, and as President, I will attempt to stop the flow of taxpayer dollars to groups who perform or advocate for abortion. I believe we may be able to save millions of lives, and do no harm, by allowing states to pass their own anti-abortion laws. By giving this power to the states, I sincerely believe we would save hundreds of thousands of lives.”

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