“I wasn’t suggesting the president’s not a Christian. I accept the fact that the president’s a Christian,’’ Santorum said. He said his only criticism was of a world view that “elevates the earth above man.’’
Santorum, a staunch social conservative and Republican presidential candidate, has been surging in the polls, largely on the strength of evangelical Christian and Tea Party-affiliated voters. He is ahead of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney in many national polls. But that has also drawn more scrutiny to Santorum’s statements.
Also in Ohio on Saturday, Santorum criticized the president’s health care overhaul for requiring insurers to cover prenatal testing for free. “Why? Because it saves money in health care,’’ Santorum said. “Why? Because free prenatal testing ends up in more abortions and therefore less care that has to be done because we cull the ranks of the disabled in our society.’’
Yesterday, Santorum stood by his comments.
“The bottom line is that a lot of prenatal tests are done to identify deformities in utero, and the customary procedure is to encourage abortions,’’ Santorum said on CNN.
Santorum said he was specifically talking about amniocentesis, which is used to identify chromosomal abnormalities such as Down Syndrome and trisomy 18, a disease that Santorum’s daughter, Bella, has.
“I have child who has trisomy 18,’’ Santorum said. “Almost 100 percent of trisomy 18 children are encouraged to be aborted. So I know what I’m talking about here.’’
Santorum said women should have a right to do prenatal testing, but insurance companies should not be forced to cover it. “To have the government force people to provide it free . . . to me is a bit loaded,’’ he said.
Loss in home state would be grave, Gingrich says
