Rick Santorum attempts to protect the innocent yet he undermines and therefore delays the country's enforcement of the God-given right to life of unborn children by defending abortion regulations that end with words that say, in effect, "and then you can kill the baby."
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Santorum Signs Personhood Pledge: Regardless of his former compromised positions and actions regarding abortion, if Rick Santorum would stop advocating abortion regulations, he would be a Tier 1 pro-life leader. Rather, he is a Tier 2 "Personhood Whenever" politician because while thankfully, Senator Santorum signed the following personhood pledge, 1
sadly, he already advocates violating this great pledge:
Santorum Violates Pledge with Child Killing Regulations: Rick Santorum's campaign site continues to praise and advocate for legislation that regulates the killing of children including for example the Partial Birth Abortion "Ban", the Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act, and regarding the abortion drug, for the RU-486 Patient Health and Safety Protection Act. Each of these regulations in effect end with words, "and then you can kill the baby." The 15-year PBA ban fiasco raised a quarter of a billion dollars as a fund-raiser but as Dr. James Dobson wrote:
"Ending partial-birth abortion, which would more accurately be named 'late-term murder,' does not save a single human life."2
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Santorum in Moral Confusion Would Set "Qualifications" for Dispersing Death Drug: Rick Santorum himself says that the RU-486 Patient Health and Safety Protection Act would "require the FDA to establish restrictions regarding the qualifications of physicians to prescribe the abortion drug commonly known as RU-486." 3
There is a world of difference between moral and immoral incrementalism, and to end abortion, pro-lifers need to do right and risk the consequences. American RTL's article, Oppose Abortion Regulations Because..., explains the immeasurable harm that decades of "pro-life" regulations have inflicted against the goal of protecting every child by love and by law. And while fundraisers and lawyers use many clichés trying to justify the use of child killing regulations, American Right To Life exposes their falacies in the powerful Burning Buildings and Half a Loaf.
"The law condemns and punishes only actions
within certain definite and narrow limits;
it thereby justifies, in a way,
all similar actions that lie outside those limits."
Santorum Recommends Anesthetic for Holocaust Victims Before Killing: Motivated by well-meaning but morally backward ideas, unfortunately, Rick Santorum advocates The Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act by euphemistically describing giving the child a painkiller before killing her, as, "allowing the child to be treated for that pain." 4
This Act is a violation of God's enduring command, Do Not Murder, because as all regulations re-authorize behavior, after offering anesthetic the abortionist is then given permission to kill even this late-term baby. And by the law of unintended consequences, legislating anesthesia for the child will also encourage some mothers to go ahead and abort their children, for it will alleviate the guilt of some who will convince themselves, "At least my baby won't feel pain." Abortion regulations make it harder to end abortion because they make child killing appear more reasonable to the public and humane. And a fetal pain bill makes even late-term abortion appear to be more socially palatable. Abortion regulations that become "law" will even keep such killings legal for years to come if Roe v. Wade is ever merely overturned (short of personhood passing), for then all state abortion regulations will keep the abortion clinic doors open, for every one of them end with: "and then you can kill the baby."
Summary: Even though Rick Santorum signed the Personhood Pledge, he still doesn't understand this most basic concept of just government: the right to life. He is in favor of enforcing personhood but he is also willing to regulate child killing, which regulations themselves undermine the eventual personhood victory. "Child killing regulations just prune the abortion weed, and strengthen its root," says Jason Troyer of Colorado Right To Life. So like pruning one's favorite bush to make it grow strong, as leading abortion advocates are urging (see AmericanRTL.org/regs), let's regulate the procedure and we will make it appear more reasonable and humane and it this way pro-lifers will unintentionally "keep abortion legal."
