I’m a pro-choice liberal Democrat, a fierce feminist and a sworn enemy of Rick Santorum. But there are people re-circulating an old story about Santorum and a tragic miscarriage that he and his wife suffered through, and they shouldn’t be. It was a highly intimate, deeply painful family affair that some of this man’s opponents are trying to use for political gain, and that is reprehensible.
In 1997, presidential candidate Rick Santorum’s wife, Karen, became very sick during the second trimester of her pregnancy. The fetus was severely deformed, was going to die inside of her, and also had a likelihood of killing Karen. The Santorums knew the risk, but Karen bravely decided to try to carry the pregnancy to full term.
When doctors undertook a procedure to help with complications, she contracted a life-threatening infection which put her in an incapacitated state. With the understanding that it was a great risk to the fetus’ life, they authorized an induction of labor. The fetus died; Karen survived.
This story got a lot of coverage back in the 1990s, when Santorum was leading the crusade against partial-birth abortion, because at first blush, it appears that Rick Santorum, who opposes all abortions even in the case of rape, incest and the health of the mother, actually authorized a partial birth abortion to save his partner’s life.
But Rick Santorum did not authorize an abortion. He authorized a risky medical procedure as his wife and child were dying on the table – a terrible decision to have to make. There but for the grace of God go I. She was willing to die to try to save that fetus – she’s a neonatal nurse, so she understood the risks – and asked to stop the labor. It was the hospital, citing malpractice concerns, that refused to let her take the risk.
Karen Santorum showed a measure of existential courage that most of us, thankfully, will never need to find out if we’ve got. And Rick Santorum, on the cusp of a life or death decision, did the best he could. That’s all any of us can ever do.
I know one thing: I hope I never have to know the pain of losing a child in that way. God bless the Santorums.
Who is so corrupted, so rotted by jagged, vacant partisanship that they’re willing to level an accusation like that at a man – a man who obviously deeply values his faith and has an impressive endurance of his convictions, no matter how wrongheaded they are – just for political points?
Conservatives love to poke at us liberals by calling us “bleeding hearts.” I say: To Santorum’s liberal detractors propagating this miscarriage story, drop it. Let your heart bleed. Santorum has no chance of winning the presidential nomination. His policies are political poison and he’ll sink on his own. There’s no need to put his wife and family through an attack on what is surely one of the most painful periods in their family history. We can do better than that.
Related Articles
Share
(4) Readers Comments
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Recent Posts
Santorum Family's Miscarriage is Off-Limits 01/07/2012: I’m a pro-choice liberal Democrat, a fierce feminist and a sworn enemy of Rick Santorum. But there are people re-circulating...
Dictator Obama’s Power Grab 01/06/2012: Barack Obama’s appointment of 3 National Labor Board members was an unprecedented move that was labeled unconstitutional by many members...
At A Time When We Need A Strong Military 01/06/2012: At a time when the United States needs a strong military, our dear leader, Barack Hussein Obama, wants to cut...
The Winner of the Iowa Caucus: Barack Obama 01/04/2012:
I'll tell you who won last night's Iowa caucus for the Republican presidential nomination, and it wasn't one of the...
Photo Finish – Iowa Surprises Everyone 01/04/2012: The Iowa Caucuses were “Too Close to Call” until the bitter end. In case you were one of the intelligent...
Thank You Gabriel.
I haven’t heard anything about this until now. But then again, I’m not a Santorum fan per ‘se. I am glad to see a frothing, ravenous, bleeding-heart Attack Liberal who has some conservative values, thank you Gabriel.
this story is getting new “air-time” because Santorum is making some headway in the polls and candidate-selection procedures going on around the country. you knew that of course. the reason it is of interest and noteworthy is that it recounts an instance in which the Santorum family (Rick and Mrs. Rick) took actions contrary to the political stance they take on an issue that affects women’s health care. Rick is opposed to abortion (as is the church he frequents) in all circumstances (if i’m understanding the official position correctly): the Catholic Church disapproves (and forbids its members to avail themselves) of abortion even when he abortion necessary to save, protect the life of the mother. I feel badly for the Santorums over the loss of their child – my wife and I experienced a number of miscarriages in the days when procreation was a concern and goal of ours. but Santorum is being “called out” for the tremendous hypocrisy he exhibits when advocating laws that would forbid all measures that would bring about termination of pregnancy, despite the fact that he and his wife took the same measures when the wife’s health and life were at risk. they assumed that the fetus would not be viable (probably correctly so, given the opinions of Mrs. Santorum’s doctors) and because there was a risk to Mrs. in not terminating the pregnancy, they did what most people would think that they should be free to decide, in the “inner sanctum” of the family structure. the reason Rick is being given a modicum of “hell” over this, and rightfully so, IMHO, is that he permits himself to do something which he would deny to others the freedom to do in exactly the same circumstances. if this isn’t hypocrisy by someone who has chosen to put himself on the public stage in the public spotlight, nothing is. IMHO.
NO, it is NOT off limits. If Rick Santorum decrees that no one can have an abortion under any circumstances because rape babies are still gifts from god, then his family can be just as scrutinized and judged as the rest of us. It was GOD’s WILL that his wife and baby die, and they averted God’s will by his wife having a medical procedure that saved her and doomed their unborn child. Now…what would any normal American call that procedure? AN ABORTION. I truly am sorry for the family and their loss, that’s a horrific thing to have to endure. BUT—it is still an abortion. IT WAS AN ABORTION. Plain and simple.