Abortion debate: Rick Santorum gets real (almost) on “choice”

In a recent interview with CNN’s Piers Morgan, anti-abortion hardliner Rick Santorum found some nuance on the question of a woman’s right to choose.

Or did he?

Asked in an interview for CNN by Piers Morgan what he would do if his daughter were to be impregnated by a rapist, the Republican candidate for president said: “Well, you can make the argument that if she doesn’t have this baby, if she kills her child, that that, too, could ruin her life. And this is not an easy choice, I understand that. As horrible as the way that that son or daughter…was created, it still is her child. And whether she has that child or she doesn’t, it will always be her child, and she will always know that.”

Santorum's solution

The telling language can be found in Santorum’s point: “This is not an easy choice.”

No, it isn’t easy. It’s painful, excruciatingly so. But do we solve the problem simply by eliminating choice and forcing a woman to go full term in such a nightmare scenario?

When confronted with the abortion issue in this very personal (if hypothetical) way, Santorum seemed, at least for a moment, to understand the complexity involved. If it were his own daughter in this unspeakable situation, Santorum concedes that there would be no easy solution.

Unfortunately, I imagine his answer remains the same as always: simply eliminate the painful dilemma by making it illegal to make what Santorum feels is the wrong “choice”! In other words, depend on the government to dictate what you do. Odd how Republicans like Santorum can advocate the dreaded “governmental intrusion” when it suits their purposes.

Would Grandpa Santorum want his daughter to marry the rapist father or at least to keep him a part of her child’s life? Family values, you know. That would make for some lovely holiday dinners, once the son-in-law got out of the penitentiary. Or would the daughter have to give the child up for adoption?

Doggone it. Life is a messy business, isn’t it, Rick? Praise the Lord we have people like you to figure it all out for us.