GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum is under fire in South Carolina for touting his alleged pro-life beliefs but voting to subsidize abortion and Planned Parenthood, the largest provider of abortions in America, while serving in the U.S. Senate. He has also vigorously backed pro-abortion candidates against pro-lifers. Critics are outraged.

The once top-tier Republican candidate, who surged into the spotlight after an unexpected strong finish in Iowa before a disastrous showing in New Hampshire, defended himself against the attacks by lashing out at fellow GOP contender Rep. Ron Paul. He also argued that he voted for the unconstitutional appropriations — used for terminating pregnancies, lobbying against pro-life legislation, handing out birth control, and litigating to keep abortion legal — because they were part of bigger spending bills he supported.

Pro-life activists first went after Santorum on the issue before the caucuses there, distributing fliers calling the former U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania a “Pro-Life Fraud.” The leaflets highlighted, among other points, the fact that Santorum had "a long and storied history of campaigning for radical pro-abortion candidates” such as former Sen. Arlen Specter — a Republican who later turned Democrat.

On January 13, Santorum’s record on abortion came back to haunt him again when he was confronted about voting to subsidize abortion and its apologists during a small town-hall meeting in South Carolina. He promptly attacked the questioner, accusing him of being a “Ron Paul supporter.” Then he plowed into a diatribe against the pro-life Texas Congressman, who finished a strong second in New Hampshire last week and is widely seen as a front-runner in the Republican race.

“This is a very interesting thing,” Santorum said, puzzled, apparently looking for the right words to answer a question he had not been expecting. “There is nobody that’s been a stronger pro-life leader in the United States Congress than I was.” He also alleged — inaccurately — that Ron Paul, who has never voted to fund Planned Parenthood, did not have a solid record of defending life while in office.

Santorum continued his anti-Paul rant, accusing the 12-term Congressman of not voting for federal spending even while inserting earmarks into legislation in an effort to return money to his constituents from the federal government. But despite Santorum’s bumbling efforts to attack Ron Paul, analysts say the Texas veteran — who delivered over 4,000 babies during his career as a doctor — actually proposed the most effective way to constitutionally overturn Roe v. Wade.

Indeed, Paul introduced a bill known as the We The People Act to remove the Supreme Court’s purported jurisdiction over abortion and other issues. He sponsored the legislation in every legislative session since at least 2004, though Santorum never got on board.

Santorum then continued to defend his vote by claiming that the funding was used for birth control. However, because money is fungible, few serious analysts accept the implied argument that tax funds for Planned Parenthood are not used to subsidize abortion. They undoubtedly are.

“The program that he’s talking about is a program called Title X, and it’s a program that is in appropriation bills that funds — allows for funding of, uh, uh, uh — of birth control,” Santorum claimed when he eventually addressed the original question, carefully avoiding any mention of Planned Parenthood’s far more lucrative abortion business or its pro-abortion lobbying. “I am not for federal funding of that, but it’s in a big bill that provides a lot of things. Did I vote for that overall bill? Yes, I did.” He then resumed his attacks on Paul for not supporting enough federal spending.

The legislation in question was also used to fund several other federal departments not authorized by the Constitution including Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education. But for many pro-life activists, voting for any bill that sends even a dime of tax money to an organization known to commit over 329,000 abortions every year is deal breaker — let alone voting to appropriate almost half of a billion dollars for the abortionist cause.   

One pro-life commentator in South Carolina, Brian Frank, wrote in the S.C. Hotline that Santorum’s vote to fund Planned Parenthood actually “makes him a partner in crime of the ungodly murder of the innocent unborn.” Frank assailed the GOP hopeful for other faults, too. “’Mr. Pro-life’ voted to have innocent Americans placed into the PP vegi-matic laboratories and enthusiastically campaigned for pro-abortion Arlen Specter against the more conservative Pat Toomey,” the critic noted. He also said Santorum was mistaken if he believed his votes to fund Planned Parenthood could be hidden from Christians and pro-life activists.  

The former Senator vigorously campaigned for several rabidly pro-abortion candidates, too — even against their pro-life opponents.

Beyond abortion, Santorum’s voting record in the Senate also includes other evidence that the GOP hopeful is not quite as “conservative” as he would like voters to believe. For example, he supported unconstitutional gun control, the Medicare Part D prescription drug program, raising the debt ceiling, invading Iraq without a declaration of war, and expanding the unconstitutional Department of Education. He also backed indefinite detentions, torture, removing habeas corpus, and other legislation repugnant to American traditions and the Constitution. But it has not gone unnoticed by his opponents.

As the GOP race heats up, in addition to his votes for Planned Parenthood, critics are also taking aim at Santorum’s consistent support for big government. Comments by the former Senator advocating a “long war” to “eradicate” many of the world’s more than one billion Muslims have been the focus of some criticism, too. And his vow to unilaterally and unconstitutionally attack Iran when elected if its government refuses to obey him has some analysts very nervous as well.

Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly reported that Santorum voted in favor of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act while in the House. We apologize for the mistake. Also, the article reported that Iowans for Life handed out fliers opposed to Santorum, but officials from that group are denying they were responsible for the fliers, though the name Iowans for Life was on some of the fliers, so the article was changed to say that pro-life activists handed out fliers.

Adobe Flash Player not installed or older than 9.0.115!

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (10)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Zelda said:

... I guess it comes down to voting for Ron Paul then. How did so many pro-abortion big government liberals get in the Republican race???

January 16, 2012

Reid McComment said:

Give Santorum a break This anti-abortion thing on Paul is fa fair attack. The Ron Paul illusion. Everyone goes through the Ron Paul phase. Man you know what I was a big supporter of Paul, and you know what I still may vote for him if he just clarifies a few things. I just could not swallow a few things, but I was/am still willing to vote for him. Don't eat me alive but I saw this post that really made the decision for me about ron paul and why I am no longer going to support him and its here, I googled apostles of paul ron paul and it popped up on the search terms. Don't remember and too lazy to know

January 16, 2012

Charles Thompson said:

... People need to know this information. Santorum's only claim to fame is the lie that he opposes the murder of unborn children. Now it turns out that he actually voted to subsidize it with our taxes! Man am I angry!

January 16, 2012

Pat Riot said:

... Santorum (the war monger, not the frothy mixture) IS a Pro-Life Fraud, just like Iowans for Life tried to warn people before the caucuses. He is a politician America! You can NEVER believe what a politician says you have to see what they do and here it is quite obvious that Santorum voted to spend YOUR tax money slaughtering children. That is all there is to the story. A vote for Santorum is a vote for Planned Parenthood and subsidized murder of innocent babies.

January 17, 2012

Pat Riot said:

Pass it on This article should be sent to every fraud of a pastor who endorsed this guy. Either they are uniformed or they are complicit. Either way they need to be exposed. Who would Jesus abort?

January 17, 2012

tcot said:

... Santorum: Just another pro-war pro-abortion anti-Constitution politician like the rest of them both Ds and Rs.

January 18, 2012

Weaz said:

slimeball He must think the American people are stupid or something, well let's show him that we aren't. Voting to give Planned Parenthood money is completely unnacceptable on so many levels I don't even know where to begin!

January 20, 2012

yippeekayay said:

This is ridiculous Choosing one's battles, something every military or political tactician knows is critical to long term success, is not the same as endorsing one's enemy's strategy. There are times it is wiser to retreat than to engage. Santorum or Gingrich (or anyone else who unlike Ron Paul actually engaged the enemy during their terms in office) voting "for" bills for which they didn't have the political guns to vote against at the time is not the same as them embracing the content or ideology of the bill. It may merely have meant they were saving that battle to win a decisive victory later when the American people were less ambivalent, apathetic, ignorant or wrong in their opinions and political leanings. Tearing Santorum down in this dishonest and partisan way does no one any good right now. Anyone who really knows the man knows that he is staunchly pro life. I despise this type of political hack "journalism". I have absolutely no respect for this author's intent. I find it completely inexcusable.

February 13, 2012

TruCon2012 said:

... Santorum is a fraud. There is no excuse for voting for funding Planned Parenthood or for the unconstitutional package it was embedded in. Saying one is pro life means nothing. Voting pro life is what matter. Santorum should publicly apologize for this and then MAYBE conservatives could think about supporting him. For now my vote goes to Ron Paul!

February 14, 2012

Inzpire said:

... Proving once again that politicians will lie about anything and everything to get elected.

February 14, 2012